


Cantus Nobilis I: Demons' Run

by TheProfessor



Series: Cantus Nobilis [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 21:18:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 31,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/565416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheProfessor/pseuds/TheProfessor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He knows who you are, but not who you were." The Doctor's adventures through military compounds, Nazis, the Silence, and old friends takes him on a journey that will reveal the final, impossible truth about the real identity of River Song. *Post AGMGTW, AU*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written in the hiatus between the two halves of season 6. At that point in time, it was still a possibility, though now it has become an AU. I have made the decision to continue this AU, so this is part one of a multi-part series. Our story begins directly at the end of "A Good Man Goes To War".

The Stormcage was unusually quiet. The ever present echo of guards' footsteps was nowhere to be found. Even the prison itself seemed to hum a bit more quietly, as if it meant to draw the anxiety of its most infamous inmate right out of the air.

River Song was busily writing in her TARDIS blue diary, carefully etching each letter into the yellowing paper. Her blond curls hung loosely around her head, casting a shadow on the open book. The light in her small cell was far from ideal, but it worked for her purposes.

She let her mind drift back only a few hours, when Demon's Run had come to pass. The incredulous faces of her parents had imprinted themselves in her mind and they had been awkwardly unwilling to let her leave them at their home in Leadworth. She had to promise them that everything would be alright. She knew it would, eventually at least. So many more things had to happen, things that were happening for the Doctor right now.

She slowly stopped writing as something made itself known to her. The air outside her cell became charged, as if someone had stepped into it, yet no one was there. She slowly stood from her bed as footsteps reached her ears, closing her diary and setting it on the sparsely furnished bed. The sudden presence of a guard was not unusual, yet she knew this was no ordinary guard. The footfalls were too sharp, too distinct, much like someone walking with an aim or purpose. Out of the darkness to her left a male figure appeared, vortex manipulator prominent on his right wrist.

"Octavian? What are you doing here?" River demanded, crossing to the metal bars that separated her from the rest of the Stormcage. Octavian said nothing, but reached into a pocket at his breast and pulled out a sheaf of papers. He extended them to her through the vertical bars and she took them from his outstretched hand eagerly, wondering what exactly would warrant such an impromptu visit. She unfolded the few sheets and ran her eyes over the words hurriedly. A slow smile spread over her face.

"They've actually agreed to it, though I can't imagine they're very happy," Octavian rumbled in his deep voice, working his way into River's thoughts. He was wearing his bishop's uniform, guns and all, save his helmet. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen him without it. It made him look younger. "It will take a minimum of four years to be processed," he added gruffly.

"I know," she replied, folding the papers silently and handing them back to him. "Why did you bring this to me? And where did you get a vortex manipulator? I could have sworn that time travel was restricted to cardinals and those of higher rank."

Octavian's mouth curled into a strained smile, showing no teeth. "It's just a borrow," he replied. "I brought it because I heard what happened at Demon's Run."

River quickly moved away from him and returned to her bed, hearing the faint squeak that her weight added to the flimsy metal protrusion that held her mattress. "And what exactly happened?" she asked innocently.

"Yesterday," he clarified, sending a whithering look in her direction. He could tell that she was irritated and the gentle tapping of a finger against the diary's cover confirmed it. "You came back a day late. You never do that." He paused, watching her open her diary and continue to write in it, ignoring him as best she could. "Word is spreading faster than a burning star. Yesterday-"

"Is none of your concern," she interrupted curtly. She pretended to write in the blue book, but only traced over previously written words. The crackle of the yellowing paper made Octavian impatient.

"It is absolutely my concern!" He raised his voice angrily and she briefly stopped writing. "Demon's Run has passed for the Doctor, that means-"

"I know what it means!" she snapped back. Her green eyes met his own with the fury of a Time Lord, a right she could now properly claim. "He has gone, just as he must. The timelines are falling where they should."

"And your parents?" he questioned gently. His voice took on a smooth tone, one she was unaccustomed to.

River paused. Amy and Rory had occupied her thoughts for hours now, but there was nothing more she could do for them. "They are fine."

Octavian smirked in derision. "He knows who you are, but not who you were."

River's muscles seized up in both anger and surprise. He must have read her file. After all, she would be assigned to his platoon when it came time to earn her pardon. She turned her gaze to him with a carefully measured frown. "What do you want, Father Octavian?"

"Oh nothing, Miss Song. Nothing at all." He turned away from her cell with a satisfied smirk, strutting down the shadow-filled hallway until the vortex manipulator took him away with a flash.

River let the breath she was holding finally escape her lungs. She let her head rest back against the prison wall and drew her legs upward, clasping her arms around her knees in a defensive gesture. Her blue diary sat on her lap and she looked at its cover sadly. It was happening now, she thought again. He would soon know the whole truth, not simply choice pieces. In a way, it would kill him.

She sighed softly and closed her eyes, thinking of the man in the bow tie that would soon know her secret. "I'm sorry, my love."


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank all the lovely Time Ladies from the Time Lord Registry who let me bounce ideas off them and who helped me round out this story. You guys are wonderful.
> 
> Disclaimer: In no way do I own Doctor Who or anything affiliated with it. This is purely for fun.

The Doctor rushed headlong into the TARDIS, hearing his girl hum in excitement. He could feel the air within his beloved time machine charged with energy; she seemed just as anxious as he felt. He bounded up the stairs and began to flip switches and pull levers, but she suddenly lurched to the side before he could properly set the coordinates for Florida in 1969.

"Oi!" he yelled, clutching her console for dear life. "What are you doing?" He grabbed for a lever and used it to pull himself toward the proper buttons as the TARDIS spun and tumbled through the Time Vortex like a ball rolling down a hill. The console sparked violently and he had to duck to avoid the shower, lest it singe his precious tweed jacket. The machine suddenly ground to a halt, thudding on what he assumed to be solid ground. He pulled himself to his feet and let out a loud huff of air. He pulled the moving screen toward himself, then frowned as he read the symbols.

"This is not 1969!" he declared grumpily. She did not dignify him with a response, only threw open her blue doors. He quickly scanned the environment and found that he was indeed on Earth, just in the wrong year. It was early 1942 and he was somewhere in northeastern Germany, likely near Berlin. "Perfect," he grumbled, then rushed down the TARDIS's steps, outside and right into a battalion of Nazi soldiers.

"Oh," he said softly, watching the group of men stand and arm their very not nice looking guns. "Um, hello!" He managed a decent smile and reached backward to shut the TARDIS doors. One of the men, whom the Doctor assumed was the leader of the troop by the many medals he had pinned to his uniform, stepped forward and began to speak. He had a clean shaven face, set upon a head that was rather box-shaped. His dark hair was short as was his height and he held himself in a manner that betrayed both self-importance and condescending intelligence.

"Doctor," he said in a surprisingly light German accent. "I am Friedrich Jeckeln. We have been expecting you."

"Well that's rubbish," the Time Lord replied. "How am I supposed to surprise people if they expect me?" He placed his hands on his hips in a faux angry gesture, but the man didn't buy it. "...Why were you expecting me again?"

The man raised his head a fraction in impatience. "Please, Doctor. Follow me."

The Doctor dropped his hands and looked around at the group of soldiers. They all looked very young, the oldest not past his twentieth year. There was an odd smell in the air, something that he could not place. It seemed familiar to him, yet not at the same time. He eyed their guns with distaste, but thought it wiser to keep his mouth shut for once and follow the man in charge. Not that he had a choice, of course.

As they walked, the Doctor noticed a previously hidden badge of sorts on the man's shoulder, displayed proudly on his uniform. It was a black rectangle with what looked like two white lightning bolts stitched prominently in the middle. His countenance turned dark. The man was a member of the Einsatzgruppen, the organisation that had been responsible for many of the mass murders during World War II. It confirmed his suspicion that he was indeed somewhere in Berlin, as they had a headquarters somewhere in the city. He felt like reaching out and ripping off the patch, but he thought better of it. The young boys with guns were following them as an escort of sorts and he didn't particularly feel like regenerating today.

"Jeckeln," the Doctor said conversationally, hoping that speaking to the man would take some of the edge from his persona. "You should be in Latvia right now, what are you doing here?"

Despite his stoic mask, Jeckeln turned his head to eye the Doctor suspiciously. "How would you know that?"

"I know a lot of things," he said simply. Their footsteps echoed annoyingly on the concrete floor and he wanted to yell to relieve the monotony.

Jeckeln fell silent for several moments. The Doctor was about to accept that the officer wasn't going to divulge the information, but then his deep voice reached the Doctor's ears. "I am to be awarded. The War Merit Cross." His voice was full of pride.

The Doctor's smile disappeared. "Rumbula," he said softly. Rumbula had been a two day massacre, he remembered. This man had killed 25,000 people.

He grinned, the first smile the Doctor had seen on his face. "It was glorious," he declared.

The Doctor's face grew dark like a thunder cloud. "You've lost the right to talk to me." Jeckeln did not seem intimidated, but fell silent all the same.

Jeckeln led the Doctor through hallway after twisting hallway. The Time Lord made a point to remember any and all defining characteristics of this dull, concrete-laden place. Every hallway and door looked the same with few exceptions. He almost yawned when Jeckeln stopped in front of a large metal door that did not look like it belonged anywhere near 1942. The Doctor reached out to touch the metal, then brought the finger to his mouth. "51st century... Where did you-"

The door suddenly shuddered and slid away with surprising speed, considering its size and how heavy it must weigh. Beyond, there was a control room that definitely did not belong here. It flashed and beeped, recording and re-recording anything and everything that went on in the facility. "More 51st century! Did you lot decide to go time shopping?"

Jeckeln sent the Time Lord an irritated glance, then led him into the room. The wall to their left was covered in surveillance screens, thoroughly surveying the compound. The wall in front of them was bare, but it seemed to be the platform for a holo screen. The room was dimly lit with just a single light in the ceiling, accompanied by the light from the screens and control panels.

The only other person in the room was a woman, sitting far to the right in a desk that seemed out of place in the technologically advanced control center. As soon as the Doctor saw her, he bristled and his face contorted in rage. Ignoring the soldiers, Jeckeln, and the surprise he should be feeling, he marched up to the desk with a fire in his eyes that could burn the brightest galaxies. He slammed his hands down on the wooden object, leaning dangerously close to the woman who hadn't moved an inch. "Where is she?"

Madame Kovarian, who had been scribbling down a bit of information on a piece of paper, nonchalantly raised her head, staring down the Time Lord with one, beady eye. "Where is who, Doctor?"

The Doctor drew himself up to his full height, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "You know very well who." He quickly scanned her, in case she decided to pull something else on him. "You aren't flesh," he said, surprised. He put the sonic screwdriver back into his pocket before someone decided it was prudent to take it away from him.

"Why should I be?" She set the pencil on the table and folded her hands like a patient teacher with a frustrating student. The soldiers behind the Doctor were standing at the ready, waiting from any sort of signal from Madame Kovarian.

He shrugged. "Once a coward, always a coward."

She bristled. He smiled.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, Doctor." Kovarian stood from her chair and slowly walked to her right, toward the giant console full of buttons and levers. It was far less interesting and fashionable than his TARDIS, the Doctor thought. He watched her carefully, eyes locked on her form as she walked. "You have much more to worry about than the child."

"Her name is Melody," he replied icily.

Kovarian pressed a red button and the holo screen brought to life a scene of a white room. A woman that the Doctor had never seen before was sitting in a wooden rocking chair, gently rocking a bundle in her arms. The only other object in the room was a plain, wooden crib. The walls were completely unadorned with no windows and only a small light in the ceiling. "She is being taken care of."

"Being taken care of without love isn't care at all." His eyes narrowed at her. She seemed completely unconcerned by his words. He was happy that Melody did not seem much older than when he had lost her at Demon's Run, but she really was not getting the loving care that she needed.

"As I've said, you have much more to worry about, Doctor." She reached over to yet another button and the picture of baby Melody disappeared. It was quickly replaced by another image.

The Doctor's throat went dry. The screen presented him with a dozen Nazi soldiers and their captain, marching down the snowy streets of Chiswick in Amy's time. He recognised the street and the houses that seemed to leer down at the men and their weapons. The street was deserted except for the soldiers and he watched the screen in horror as they approached the one house he did not think he would ever see again.

The soldiers kicked down the door and burst into the house. He could not hear anything, but he could imagine what was happening. After almost exactly a minute, two of the soldiers returned to view, dragging with them a kicking, screaming ginger, followed by a dark-skinned man who was doing quite a bit of yelling himself.

The Doctor stared in shock and sorrow, letting the woman's name fall from his lips like a long forgotten dream.

"Donna."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fact: Friedrich Jeckeln was a real officer in the Einsatzgruppen. He was captured by the Soviet Union's Red Army at the conclusion of World War II. Jeckeln was found guilty during a military court proceeding and was hung on February 3rd, 1946 in Riga, Latvia.
> 
> Jeckeln: http : //en . Wikipedia . org/wiki/Friedrich_Jeckeln
> 
> Rumbula: http : //en . Wikipedia . org/wiki/Rumbula_massacre


	3. Chapter 2

"As I said, Doctor. Much more to worry about," Madame Kovarian smirked. The look on the Doctor's face was priceless. The Nazi soldiers and Jeckeln still stood in the doorway they had come through, watching the exchange with impassive expressions.

"How?" he whispered, green eyes transfixed on the screen. He watched as the soldiers dragged his best friend from her mother's home, kicking and screaming the whole way. How can they be there?

"Time windows are so very useful," the woman with the eyepatch said brusquely. She returned to her desk with an air of confidence that hadn't been there before. As she moved, the Doctor noticed a thick, black bracelet on her wrist. A vortex manipulator. At least he now knew her method of travel. He could also tell that it was currently shorted-out and dead.

"How can you have the energy for-" He felt the words catch in his throat as he turned his attention from the time travelling device. It took an almost unfathomable amount of energy to open a time window, but they had an almost unlimited supply. It's World War II... They have people. His chest burned with anger.

Kovarian quietly tapped a nailed finger on the wooden desk. "What will you do, Doctor?" Her voice was condescending and grated on his nerves. "Will you save the woman or the child?"

He reached into his tweed coat. "Both."

He quickly raised the sonic screwdriver to the ceiling and the light mounted there popped and exploded, sending a surge of electricity through the rest of the equipment. He turned the device on the consoles around him and they all sparked and sputtered, sending the room into complete darkness. The soldiers yelled in surprise, but Kovarian's own voice rose high above even Jeckeln's. "Get him! Don't let him past you!"

The Doctor skillfully managed to skirt every soldier in the room using his ears and nose, sneaking past Kovarian herself to the wall that was behind her wooden desk. He had noticed the faint outline of a door there during their brief conversation, likely an escape route for the evil eyepatch lady. He aimed the sonic screwdriver and the door slid open, revealing a sparsely lit hallway. The light did not bother him, but it was enough to temporarily blind the humans in the room. He took the opportunity happily and escaped out the door, shutting it behind him with a buzz of his favorite tool.

The Doctor immediately surveyed his surroundings, finding himself in a hallway very similar to the halls in the rest of the compound. It did little to help him find his way, but he took off running nonetheless. Running, in this particular case, was helping him think. What could they possibly want with Donna?

He answered his own question again almost immediately, just as before. Donna had the mind of a Time Lord in her own head. It was a copy of his own mind, something that Kovarian would invariably do anything to get her hands on. It would be a fountain of information, something that they could both use against him and give to Melody. Madame Kovarian meant to turn her into a weapon; how better than to give her as much knowledge as possible about her enemy?

But why the Nazis in 1942? He hoped that destroying their consoles as he had would close the time window, but he doubted it. It was likely that the device was a strange combination of both eras of technology, something to convert energy from form to form. He had to push the thought of the dying people out of his mind. He knew they would have still died had Kovarian not come here, but that didn't make him feel any better.

The Doctor skidded to a halt as the hallway he was running down abruptly ended and branched off to either side. There was sound coming from his right and it took him a moment to realise that it was a cascade of running footsteps and Jeckeln's voice. That solved his dilemma; he quickly turned to his left and began to run again. The fact that the soldiers were coming from that particular direction made it more likely that Melody was somewhere ahead of him. At least he hoped so.

He briefly recalled the interior of Melody's "nursery", if it could even be called that, and remembered that the walls did not seem to be brick or concrete like everything else, but a different material altogether. He searched for any shifts in the walls around him as he ran. The compound was so uniform that it was almost impossible to discern any differences in the many hallways.

Suddenly, a familiar smell reached his nose and he stopped abruptly in front of an inconspicuous white door. He inhaled through his nose again and-

The door handle began to turn. He reached into his coat for the sonic, unsure of what he would find. A woman with dark brown hair turned up into a bun stepped from behind the door, but gasped when she saw the Doctor standing just outside the room. The Doctor recognised her immediately as the woman who had been tending to Melody. The scent had been from the woman's close contact with the baby and from walking in and out of the room. She raised her hands to her mouth. "Please don't hurt me-"

"Hurt you?" The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, then realized that he had the sonic screwdriver pointed directly at her heart. He quickly lowered it. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here for the baby."

"B-but-" The woman stepped completely out of the doorway and tried to shut the door behind her, but the Doctor quickly reached out and stopped her.

"She has parents who are missing her," he replied softly, looking as deeply into the woman's blue eyes as he dared. She looked no more than twenty-two. He watched as she silently nodded and released her grip. "Thank you." He threw open the wooden door and rushed inside.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Is it finished yet?" Kovarian snapped. She paced angrily from one side of the room to the other, glaring at the consoles that were slow in powering back up. She knew that the Doctor had briefly disrupted the time window, causing the battalion of soldiers and the ginger woman to be temporarily stranded. This was far from ideal and the Fuhrer would be furious. They needed Donna Temple-Noble and they needed her as quickly as possible.

Madame Kovarian could not keep the Doctor from taking the child. She knew that. In fact, she was counting on it. But he didn't know that.

"I am trying, Madame," the man replied. He had been trying to repair her vortex manipulator for the last month, but to no avail. He had been the only person other than the child to accompany Madame Kovarian from the 51st century, someone who could repair and build the equipment she would need. In his opinion, it had been more trouble than it was worth to drag everything here, but he couldn't tell her that. She was convinced that the ginger woman, whose name he knew was Noble, was the key to everything. "I do not know what more I can do. I am sorry."

Kovarian clenched her fists in anger. She couldn't believe that something as simple as that could have destroyed her vortex manipulator.

xxxxxxxxxx

The blank room seemed even more sparse from the inside. The camera that had shown him his initial glimpse of Melody was mounted in a corner and he quickly dispatched it with a buzz and a shower of sparks. Her crib was to his left and he heard her whimper as the camera creaked and popped. A smile crept onto his face as he approached her. He realized that she had been sleeping before his arrival.

He peered over the edge of the crib and Melody's dark eyes stared back at him. "Hello Melody Pond." She made a gurgling noise and he smiled. "Of course I'm here to get you. I'm going to take you back to Mummy and Daddy." He gently picked her up, cradling her in one arm as he scanned her with the other. This time she was one hundred percent real, no programmable flesh involved. In addition, he had come to the conclusion that she was only about one month older than Demon's Run, making this rescue a resounding success, in his humble opinion. If they could get out, that is.

A sudden thought occurred to him and he spoke to Melody. "Do you know how Madame Kovarian's vortex manipulator got broken?" The baby gurgled and he shook his head. "No, the black thing." He waved his wrist in front of her face, then she made a sound that could not have been mistaken for anything but laughter. She made a squeak of glee and the Doctor almost burst into laughter himself. She had apparently drooled all over it. Go figure. Already in trouble...

He gathered up the only blanket that Melody had and wrapped her in it as quickly as he could manage. "Do you know how to get out of here, Pond?" She gurgled and he rolled his eyes. "Of course you were asleep when they brought you here." He hoped that he could get out without any altercations, but it wasn't very likely. He did have one advantage that he would use to its full potential: there was no way they would shoot at him or attack him in any way if he had Melody in his arms.

With that thought at the front of his mind, he moved to the exit. The brown haired woman was no longer there and he could not discern which direction she had gone, toward or away from the coming soldiers. Speak of the devil...

The echo of the footsteps were louder now. He hoped that the soldiers would have passed him by this point, but there must have been many more halls than he had originally thought. He almost sighed. He had to get Melody out of here soon. She couldn't stay here. Even though...

He pushed that thought away. It wouldn't do to dwell on it. He could feel the threads of time bending around the child in his arms and he knew what had to happen. He couldn't stop it or change it. He turned his green eyes briefly to Melody and smiled sadly. "I am so sorry." He gently kissed her forehead, then ran.


	4. Chapter 3

The Doctor was well aware that he was running directly into Jeckeln and his soldiers, but he knew so little about the compound that it made no sense to go anywhere else. If the soldiers came from the door he had originally gone through, which was likely, that meant that this direction was the way back to his TARDIS. He hoped that the surveillance system was still offline; it was his only hope of getting Melody out of here unscathed.

As he turned a corner, he heard a female voice from his left say, "Doctor, this way!" He turned to see the brown-haired woman from before standing in an open doorway. "Well come on!"

He quickly followed her into the room beyond, which was dark and had no light to speak of. The Doctor quickly pulled out the sonic screwdriver to use as a light. "Thank you," he said to the girl, watching the green light dance across her face. The girl was obviously afraid and she made sure that the door was shut completely. "You helped me," the Time Lord began. He reasoned that Kovarian would have told everyone about him, which also explained the woman's shock at seeing him outside Melody's room. What it didn't explain was why she had just helped him.

"You said she has parents," the woman replied softly, German accent quite thick. "Madame Kovarian said she was an orphan."

The Doctor frowned. "She kidnapped Melody." He turned to the screwdriver and shushed it, but the buzzing from the light did not quiet. The soldiers were almost upon them and he felt too exposed with the light and sound. He turned it off and they were plunged into darkness. "Shh..."

They were quiet for several minutes after the soldiers passed them by. The woman finally whispered. "Please return her to her family."

"I intend to," he replied quietly. He paused, then asked, "What's your name?"

"Adele," she replied nervously, smoothing her plain, gray dress with her hands.

He smiled in the darkness. "Thank you, Adele. You helped me and took care of Melody."

She nodded, though he couldn't see it. "I can take you back to your box."

He turned the light back on and raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you know about that?"

"I was down the other hallway, on my way to feed the child. I saw you... appear." She crept toward the door and opened it silently, looking from side to side. She motioned for the Doctor to follow her. They rushed as quickly as they dared down the winding halls and back to the TARDIS. Melody was asleep in the Doctor's arms the entire way.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor almost crowed with glee as the TARDIS came into view. He gently shifted Melody to one arm and snapped his fingers, watching the doors open in, much to the TARDIS's admonishment that "police box doors open out".

He turned to Adele. "Are you coming?"

She suddenly looked alarmed, her blue eyes wide. "Coming where?"

"With me! I can get you out of here," he said hurriedly, gently rubbing Melody's back as she made a sound of discomfort. "You don't have to stay with me, but you won't have to help Kovarian any more."

Adele looked confused, but chanced a look into the open doors of the TARDIS. Her eyes grew even wider, if possible, and she backed away quickly. "I can't..."

"I could take you somewhere else. Do you have any..." he paused, aware of how the next word could affect her. "...family?"

"Everyone died," she said softly, shaking her head. "My family was Jewish. I am the only one left. Hiding here, pretending to be something I'm not."

"I could take you to England!" he offered suddenly, which seemed to interest her. "A place for you to live, freedom to do whatever you like. How does that sound?"

Adele frowned, confused. "But I have no money-"

"Ah, who cares about money? I'll fix it, don't you worry." He gently tapped a finger on her nose. "So? Coming?"

Adele's mind began to work frantically, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shouts of soldiers. The Doctor spun on his heel to find both Jeckeln and Madame Kovarian converging on them from different directions, guns drawn. He quickly bounded into the TARDIS. "If you're coming, hurry up!" he shouted, running up the stairs as gracefully as he could manage with a two month old baby in his arms. He ended up flipping switches with a foot as Adele carefully followed him, making completely sure that she touched nothing.

"What is it?" she asked, yelping in surprise as the TARDIS doors behind her shut on their own.

"It's a..." he paused, trying to think of a way to explain a spaceship to a girl from a planet that would not have a man in space for almost two decades. "... vehicle, of sorts. It can move over long distances very fast."

"I see..." she carefully approached the console, not recognising anything that was sitting there.

The Doctor, unusually aware of the TARDIS's normal flight patterns, turned on the stabilisers to keep baby Melody asleep. As quickly as he could, he set the TARDIS into the Time Vortex and away from Madame Kovarian and her Nazi goons. He gave Adele a smile and then set off to find something for Melody to sleep in, calling over his shoulder. "Don't touch anything!"

xxxxxxxxxx

After Melody was properly tucked into bed and the TARDIS's monitor tuned exclusively to her bedroom as a baby monitor, the Doctor turned his attention to Adele, who was walking around the console in silent fascination. "So?" he asked excitedly, rubbing his hands together. "What do you think?"

"It's... strange," she finally said with an exhaled breath. She ran a hand over the buttons and levers, careful not to press or move anything. She noted the TARDIS's low hum and how it seemed to almost create a sort of song in the air.

"It's my TARDIS," he said while bouncing on his feet, finally able to give the woman a proper name for the machine, other than 'his box'.

"TARDIS," she repeated, tasting the word. She looked to the ceiling, then to him. "It's larger in here than the outside, how is that possible?"

"Well..." He scratched his head, confronted with the same dilemma. "It's complicated. Just know that it's possible and that it's real." He briefly paused to marvel at her amazement, then began running around the console, flipping and pressing. Adele watched in interest, then felt a faint thud beneath her feet as the machine landed. 

The Doctor briefly used the screen to check the date and found himself not far from his mark. "It's April 1942 in England!" he declared. "Looks like London, if I'm not mistaken."

"But that's three months from now!" she declared, horrified. "How could we have been in your... TARDIS for three months?"

The Doctor scratched his head, then finally decided that explaining the TARDIS properly was the best course of action. He proceeded to describe in detail the exact nature of the spaceship, making sure to cover the "time travel" part. Adele seemed unbelieving, but she listened to his explanation without protest. Afterward, she seemed lost in thought. "Are you well?"

"Yes," she replied quietly. "It is a lot to take in, but I think I understand."

"Great!" The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Okay then, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Melody while I go... Well, out there." He pointed toward the TARDIS doors and bounded toward them.

"Doctor!" Adele said suddenly, when he was halfway out the door.

He popped his head back in. "Yes?"

"If.. Melody awakens, how should I find her?" The Doctor had briefly explained the many rooms and the fact that they liked to move around seemingly on their own.

"Oh, um... Just ask the TARDIS to move her room!" He affectionately patted the open door. "You can do that, can't you old girl?" And with that, he disappeared out into London in 1942.

Adele watched him go, then moved toward the screen that watched over Melody. She briefly thought that she really had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor ventured forth from the TARDIS looking for a specific person. He knew this person would be somewhere here, in London. He had silently kept tabs on the man through rather sneaky means; a single hair afforded the TARDIS enough DNA to track anyone in any time, in addition to approximating their age. He rarely used this method of tracking because it wasn't often that people were not in their proper time periods. This man, however, was never where he should be.

The Doctor made his way through the streets of London, carefully avoiding large crowds. It was early evening and there were too many people out. It wasn't as though he disliked people; quite the contrary, but people tended to distract him, as he well knew, and he had a mission to complete. Adele needed a place to stay and money to start her new life and he knew exactly where to get it.

Well, relatively.

In reality, the DNA tracker in the TARDIS wasn't as accurate as he would have liked. It gave a location within a few miles, which made it almost useless to him. However, this particular person had the facilities to not be found if he didn't want to be, and so the alien required a bit of help.

The Doctor ended up visiting seven different bars during his search. Each time he was denied entrance because of his appearance. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't believe him when he said he was 909 years old. Eventually, he managed to convince them that he was indeed at least 18 years of age and old enough to be in the bar in the first place. He attributed it to his young, attractive looking face.

Finally, in the back of the seventh bar, surprisingly alone at a table, sat the man that the Doctor had been searching for. Normally, he would have had slightly more tact, but searching and being almost denied entrance to seven different bars had made him a bit cranky. He walked straight over to the table, pulled out the only other chair, and sat down. He quickly crossed his legs and folded his hands in an expectant manner, watching the human across from him with sharp, inquisitive eyes.

"Hello, Captain."


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You kind of need to have seen Torchwood for this chapter, but it's not much of a spoiler, so I'll explain it at the end.

Jack Harkness raised an eyebrow at the strange man that had just invaded his personal space. Tweed and braces...? "There are plenty of other tables, mate. Get your own."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. Jack was obviously in a bad mood and so he would have to deal with him accordingly. The last time he had this sort of uncomfortable confrontational feeling was when the Silurians kidnapped Amy and he spoke with Alaya in the basement of the church. He squared his jaw, watching Jack carefully for a moment before speaking. "The Face of Boe they called you."

Jack froze mid sip. The whiskey in his glass stilled and he glanced up. The other man's eyes were just as full of life as they always had been, though they were now green instead of blue or brown. "...Doctor?"

The Doctor grinned at the human's surprise. "At your service!" He gave Jack a rather silly salute.

"You're... in a bow tie," Jack said, voice obviously strained to keep the absurdity from seeping into it. None of the people in the bar seemed to pay them any mind, but every once in a while someone snuck a glance at the strange young man who had the fashion sense of someone four times his apparent age.

The Doctor scoffed. "Bow ties are cool!"

Jack set down his glass carefully. It had been many, many years since he had seen the Doctor. He was amazed that the Time Lord was even sitting in front of him. Even so, he knew that the alien wanted something. He'd never seek Jack out otherwise; the immortal knew that he messed with the Doctor's head, as it were, and though they were friends, it was an ever present fact.

Currently, Jack was in the middle of a slow moving Torchwood crisis, but the Doctor didn't need to know that. "You regenerated again."

"Just once more. No regrets," he added.

Jack nodded. "Regardless, it's good to see you."

The Doctor smiled, genuinely Jack noticed. "You too, old friend."

Jack smirked. "Old would be the right word for it." He quickly drained the rest of whiskey from the glass. "What do you need?"

The Doctor tapped a finger against his leg. That was one of the reasons he liked Jack; the human never beat around the bush. "There's a woman from Germany. I rescued her from the Nazis, but she has no money or place to live."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You want me to get her an apartment and money?"

"Not necessarily a lot of money," the Doctor amended. "She would be more than happy to work for it. She just needs a way to get started. She doesn't have anything but the clothes on her back."

Jack sighed, playing with the empty glass in front of him. "Why do I do these things for you?"

The Doctor grinned. "You already know the answer to that," he said, jumping out of his chair in excitement. He couldn't bring himself to say what he should have. Because you're one of the few people I trust. "The TARDIS is only a few blocks away," he said teasingly. "And I can introduce you to Adele."

Jack stood with a grin and followed him out of the bar. The prospect of seeing the TARDIS again made him happy, a welcome distraction from the monotony of his every day life. It had been so many years since he had last seen the blue box. He followed the Doctor down several streets, almost sighing in frustration when the Time Lord managed to get lost twice.

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The trip back to the TARDIS took almost an hour, but it was worth it. Jack approached the box critically, laying a hand on the blue wood. "She's brighter now."

"Wait until you see the inside," the Doctor said, snapping his fingers in an attempt to impress. The instant the doors opened, a wail reached their ears. "Uh oh." The Doctor quickly ran inside to find Adele desperately trying to quiet Melody, who was screaming at the top of her lungs. He barrelled up the steps to the woman's side.

"There's a baby?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Long story!" The Doctor yelled, taking Melody from Adele. The baby quieted immediately, dark eyes fixed on the Time Lord. She gurgled and squealed and the Doctor sighed. "I left her to take care of you, Melody." The baby whined and the Doctor scoffed. "She did a good job before!"

"You're talking to the baby." Jack stared at him in a way that said 'you do realise what you're doing, don't you?'

"Yes Jack, I'm talking to the baby. Why does no one believe that I can speak baby?"

Jack, finally removing his eyes from the ridiculous scene of the Doctor holding and talking to a baby, looked around the console room. "You changed it. It's... brighter." The TARDIS seemed to be humming excitedly, having spent a lot of time away from the Charming One. She had missed him quite a bit.

"What's wrong with that?" The Doctor demanded, apparently having a deep conversation with the baby, who Jack eventually got around to asking about. "She belongs to my companions. The Ponds, Amy and Rory. But she got kidnapped."

"I see. And this must be the lovely young lady you were telling me so much about." He approached Adele with the most charming smile he could manage, which was quite charming if you knew the Captain. "Nice to meet you, I'm Captain Jack Harkness."

"Oh stop it," the Doctor mumbled, listening to Melody's demands for food. He would have to get her home very soon indeed; he had no clue what to feed a human baby. Surely Amy and Rory would know. Then again, he realised, Adele would know.

Jack simply rolled his eyes. He took Adele's hand and kissed it, causing the Doctor to roll his own eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Doctor. I'm only being polite."

"Just because you have another pair on the back of your head..." he grumbled, patting Melody gently on the back.

Adele smiled weakly. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Adele Fleischer."

"Adele," the Doctor sneakily interrupted. "Melody is hungry. What do I feed her?"

The German woman walked around Jack to tentatively approach the Time Lord and the baby. "I can feed her if... If she'll let me." That felt strange to say; being able to communicate with a baby was ridiculous, but it was possible here.

The Doctor communicated the information to Melody and she agreed. Adele took the baby Pond and retreated to a corner, out of sight of the two men. It took a bit of explanation from Jack as to why she wished to feed the child away from the two of them, but he understood in the end.

Jack and the Doctor spent several minutes talking awkwardly about their adventures since they last parted. The Doctor, whose suspicions about Jack's current timeline were finally confirmed, spent most of that time telling the immortal about the day that the TARDIS had become a woman. Jack spent most of that time teasing him about it.

When Adele finally returned with Melody, the baby was gurgling happily in her arms. The Doctor knew enough about human anatomy to have a question to pose to the woman, but Jack beat him to it. "Adele... There's only one way you could feed her yourself."

Adele's face darkened and she handed the baby to the Doctor. "My son. He was born three months before Madame Kovarian approached me as a wet nurse. My husband and my son were killed in a raid on our town, but she saved me from that same fate."

The Doctor's face fell. "You've lost too much. I'm so sorry." He put an arm around the woman's shoulders comfortingly and kissed her on the forehead, sudden and unexpected comfort that made tears well up in her eyes.

Adele wiped her face carefully. This man was so strange, and yet his words were full of... sympathy. She felt sympathy radiating from him. Has he lost a child as well? "Melody was my child for a short time. Knowing that she has a family to return to fills me with happiness."

Jack watched her carefully, then spoke. "We should get going, Adele. I have arrangements to make for you before the sun goes down."

She nodded nervously and extricated herself from the Doctor's grasp. The Doctor noted her skiddish behavior and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. I know you're putting a lot of trust in two people you don't know. I promise that Jack is a man of honor. He will take care of you to the best of his ability."

Jack nodded, half in thanks to the Doctor and half to Adele. "I have served in more than one war and seen too many die. I have no intention of causing anyone harm, much less someone that a trusted friend has left in my care."

The Doctor almost smiled at Jack's flowery, flirty language, but it seemed to work. Adele's tense muscles relaxed and she nodded. "I will work hard to earn your kindness."

Melody suddenly made a loud squeal and the Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "Adele, Melody says thank you for taking care of her and... loving her." He watched Adele's expression soften and she smiled. The Doctor noted how it transformed her face completely.

"You are welcome, Melody," Adele replied. She kissed the baby on the cheek, then turned to Jack. "I'm ready."

Jack nodded, but the Doctor caught the look in his eyes. He doesn't want to leave the TARDIS behind again, even though... The Time Lord knew that what he was about to say was cheating, but it would give Jack a bump in the right direction. "By the way Jack, how is Torchwood?"

Jack's face darkened, but he quickly hid it behind a smile. "Chugging right along. Come on, Adele."

The two of them started toward the blue doors, but the Doctor clapped Jack on the shoulder as he passed. "Thank you."

Jack nodded. "I'll take good care of her."

"Will you come back?" Adele suddenly asked. She stood in front of the TARDIS's open doors, looking for all of her timid nature like someone with new-found determination.

The Doctor suddenly felt put on the spot. Jack gave him a sidelong glance that seemed to say 'don't lie to her, not after all of this'. He coughed. "I don't know, Adele. But I'll try my best to visit you again."

That seemed to satisfy her. She turned to go, then quickly ran back to give the Doctor a hug. He was pleasantly surprised, but returned the gesture. He watched as Jack and Adele exited the TARDIS. He called loudly, "Jack!"

The immortal stepped back into sight of the console room, surrounded by the fading light of day. "Yes Doctor?"

"You'll see me again."

Jack raised an eyebrow, but the statement brought a spark back into his eyes. "I look forward to it." The Doctor saluted him again and he left.

The blue double doors shut and the Doctor felt himself deflate somewhat. He knew Adele would be cared for, even though he completely uprooted her from her native country. He made a verbal query to the TARDIS and the timbre of her hum seemed to change in acknowledgement. The Doctor wanted to make sure the both of them could at least communicate with each other; he was fairly certain Jack didn't know German.

The baby in his arms made a sudden noise of impatience and the Doctor almost laughed. "Alright, alright. Let's go."

It was time to take Melody home.

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"Amy..." Rory's ears caught a sound that he hadn't hoped to hear ever again. Amy had gone to take a nap shortly before three and he was left to his own devices. Instead of watching television or doing any number of other mundane activities like grocery shopping or cleaning, he decided to begin preparing dinner early. He would take any excuse to keep his mind off of the empty nursery in their house.

As soon as River had left them with an assurance that everything would be okay, Amy had cried herself to sleep, Rory holding her until he was sure she was dreaming. The next day, they had converted their guest bedroom into a nursery, spending every cent of their savings on a crib, purple paint for the walls, and enough onesies to insulate a house. They bought her name in wooden letters and hung them on the wall next to the new curtains and toy box. They bought a baby swing and several blankets, bottles, diapers, and over a dozen cans of baby formula.

It took two days to get the paint on the walls properly and a third day to construct the crib from the tiny print on the instructions. Amy insisted on returning to the shops for a wooden rocking chair and they searched dozens before she was satisfied with the perfect one. It took twenty minutes to fit it into the car properly, but it was worth it.

It had been a month since then and they had waited.

Rory was mincing a red pepper when the whirr came, of all places, from outside the front door. He froze, listening for it, just in case he had been imagining it. Again. But it was there.

"Amy!" He ran through the house as fast as his feet would take him, almost crashing into the sidetable at the end of the hall. He threw open the bedroom door to find Amy stirring awake, face red and tear-streaked. "Amy, wake up! He's here!"

He had never seen his wife wake up so quickly before. She shot out of bed and ran past him, coming to a halt in the kitchen, listening intently for the TARDIS. And there she was.

"Melody!" she yelled, throwing open the front door to see the most beautiful shade of blue they had ever laid their eyes upon. Rory quickly followed his wife as she ran up to the box and began to pound furiously on the doors. "Doctor! Doctor!"

The door opened and the Time Lord's face poked out, huffing a breath that ruffled his trademark hair. "Does this TARDIS belong to anyone else?" he asked, irritated.

"Where's Melody?" Both Ponds were glaring at him impatiently. He just smiled.

He stepped from the TARDIS and the bundle in his arms became visible to the both of them. Amy immediately broke down in tears. She scooped up her daughter and cradled her as close as she dared. Melody made a gurgling noise and the Doctor smiled. "She says she missed you both."

"We missed her too," Rory said, his own eyes misty. He turned his gaze to the Doctor. "Thank you. For bringing her back safely."

"She was very brave." He paused. "She also managed to destroy Madame Kovarian's vortex manipulator by drooling on it."

Amy laughed despite the tears. "Already in trouble, aren't you?" She kissed Melody on her head. "She hasn't aged much."

"No, she hasn't. She's about two months old, give or take." The Doctor leaned against the open TARDIS door, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Almost exactly where she should be..." Rory leaned over to kiss his daughter, then his wife.

"This is where she should be," Amy responded. Both Ponds marvelled at the amazing gift that they'd been given. She was an accident, completely unplanned, but completely wanted.

"She had better like purple," Rory said suddenly. Amy laughed.

"Purple?" The Doctor asked, confused.

"Her bedroom. It's very... purple." The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him, so he explained further. "Seeing as... Well, seeing who she... grows up to be, pink didn't seem the right color for her."

"Ah, right." The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Well then, lovely family reunion, but I have to get going-"

"Already?" Amy frowned.

"I have to," he said quietly. They had to understand. "They took... someone else. The companion that I had before you both. They kidnapped her and I have to get her back. She's in danger and a lot of it."

Rory frowned, but nodded. The thought of the Doctor on his own again was troubling, considering all that had happened with seeing his death, but they couldn't leave Melody, nor could they take her on the TARDIS. "Be safe."

Amy wrapped her free arm around the Doctor's neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

The Doctor returned the hug enthusiastically, then made sure to give one to the resident Roman before running off into the TARDIS.

The doors shut behind him and he sighed. He trudged up the stairs to the console and began setting the coordinates for Chiswick, 2011.

His conscience weighed him down like an albatross, but he pushed those thoughts away. The little girl in the spacesuit was most certainly Melody. And if she was... That meant the Silence were coming for her. He didn't know when, but they would take her and there was nothing he could do to stop them; it had to happen.

He ran a hand down his face in frustration, then returned to the console. Donna was his main priority now. He couldn't let them take her, or hurt her, or...

No. He had to save her, no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The deal with Jack: There is a point in Torchwood, sometime in season 2, where he gets sent back in time again and has to live several decades again that he has already lived. Remember how he accidentally went back to the 1800s after "Parting of the Ways" and waited over 100 years for the Doctor? It's just like that, only it happened more than once. I imagine that this exchange took place the second time, after the downfall of the Master.


	6. Chapter 5

The TARDIS wheezed into existence on a certain street in Chiswick. The Doctor raced down the steps and out into-

Well then.

He almost considered retrieving an umbrella. It wasn't raining, but snowing. It was very early January, the second by his calculations, and the snow was doing its hardest to cover absolutely anything and everything it could find as quickly as possible. There had been snow during Donna's abduction, but very little falling from the sky, as opposed to now. He hoped that the TARDIS hadn't missed her mark.

Just then, a voice reached his sensitive ears through the swirls of snow. "I'm going and that's final!"

The Doctor would recognise that fatherly voice anywhere. He quickly gained his bearings and sped off as fast as he dared to the Noble residence, finding that he was parked only a short distance away. As he approached, Wilfred came into view holding a very familiar object: the pistol that he had used to send Rassilon and Gallifrey back into the Time War not so long ago. Those brought back some memories, none at all pleasant. He took a deep breath, listening to Wilfred's angry words as he shook the gun over his head. "I'm going to get her back myself!"

"Dad, you can't, it's too dangerous out there! The police are going to find her, let them handle it!" Sylvia stood at the open door to her home trying in vain to coax her father back inside, coat haphazardly wrapped around her shoulders. The snow was forcing its way into her house and the puddle on her floor was quickly growing in size.

"Wilfred!" The Doctor called through the snow, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Get back inside!"

"What?" Wilfred spun around, looking for the source of the voice that was not his daughter's. He spotted the Doctor's figure in the swirls of snow, but could not discern anything specific about the person. "Who's that, then?"

"Get inside the house!" The Doctor finally made it to the man's side and grabbed his shoulders, turning him in the direction of Sylvia and their warm, inviting living room.

Wilfred became indignant very quickly, an impressive feat when standing in the middle of an almost-blizzard, even with a gun. "Listen here you, my granddaughter-"

"Dad, get in the house!"

Wilfred stared at the Doctor with the classic look of confusion, for those words had come from the Time Lord's mouth, not Sylvia's. "Who are you?"

"Get in the house, you stubborn..." The Doctor trailed off as he had to almost push the aging man toward his house. "You're worse than Donna!"

"Donna?" Wilf's ears perked up at the name of his precious granddaughter as he trudged through the snow. "How do you know Donna?"

The Doctor finally coerced Wilfred inside the house, listening to Sylvia fussing and fetching blankets and sweaters. She went on and on about having to make tea, completely ignoring the new presence in their home. She had taken Wilfred's gun, much to the man's dismay, and hid it somewhere when he wasn't looking. He followed her angrily into the kitchen, trying to reason with her. She would have none of it.

The Time Lord chanced a look around their home while they argued. He noted that it did not seem like the house of someone who had won the lottery less than a year earlier. He vaguely remembered Wilfred mentioning Donna and Shaun getting their own flat, but Donna would have had no expense spared to give her grandfather as much comfort as possible. He came to the conclusion that the sentimentality of the house overrode everything else; Donna's late father likely had something to do with it.

The Doctor approached the arguing pair and watched their exchange for some moments from the corner of the kitchen before they finally registered his presence. "Who are you, then?" Wilfred asked angrily, suddenly walking up to the other man. He puffed himself up as large as he could and poked the Time Lord in the chest, enunciating every word. "Who do you think you are, eh? Bursting in here and trying to stop me from helping Donna! And then you call me Dad, and-"

"Dad," the Doctor interrupted gently, causing the human to stop poking him. "I know you aren't my real dad, but I'm still proud of that." He turned from Wilfred's very confused face to Sylvia, who was observing him with an inquisitive look. He bowed his head to her respectfully. "It's nice to see you again, Sylvia."

"What... Dad, who is he?" Sylvia placed the tea cup in her hand back on the counter and marched right up to the stranger. "You tell me who you are right now-"

"Well hopefully, in about oh..." He glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes, I'll be the person off in the blizzard to rescue Donna! That is, if I don't get buried in the snow! Which, judging by the swirlyness and the overall general... snowyness of the snow, could be very likely." His numerous hand gestures did nothing to help the strange explanation. It only made the two humans more confused.

"Just tell us who you are," Sylvia demanded. "Or I'm throwing you out of here right now!" She appreciated his efforts to get Wilfred back in the house, but he was becoming more suspicious by the second. He seemed to know them, though she had never seen him before in her entire life.

The Doctor indignantly huffed air from his lungs, sending his hair flopping. "Well that's rude-"

"Tell us!" They were both scowling rather angrily at him.

"Fine!" he yelled back, placing a hand on each hip in an attempt to steady himself from their verbal attacks. "I'm the Doctor."

Sylvia blanched. Wilfred stared, then sputtered, "You're the- Oh my god. You came back!" And with that, the alien was enveloped in a crushing hug that betrayed the elderly man's strength. "You're here to save Donna?"

The Doctor returned the hug enthusiastically. "Yes I am, but unfortunately you have to let go of me first." He didn't. "Where is Shaun?"

Wilfred nodded toward the stairs. "He's upstairs, in bed. They knocked him out. We're lucky they didn't just kill him. I'm not sure why they didn't..."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "They were ordered not to kill anyone," he finally deduced. "They obviously only wanted Donna."

Sylvia stood silent, eyeing the Doctor critically. "My daughter gets kidnapped and then you show up! This is your fault, isn't it?"

The Doctor's face fell. He drew back from Wilfred, who gazed at him with a look that demanded an explanation. "It is," he confirmed. Instantly, Sylvia burst into an angry rant about how dangerous he was, but Wilfred quickly shushed her.

The Doctor swallowed nervously under their gazes and continued. "They want her mind. The information that she took from me, the reason I had to erase her memories. They plan to take it from her and use it against me." He paused in reflection. "I've put her in danger again." He raised both of his hands to his head, scratching furiously until his hair was sticking out in a million different directions. He was angry at himself for getting Donna caught in another terrible situation.

His new comical appearance did nothing to stem Sylvia's anger. "So why aren't you out there finding her?"

"Because I have no-" He paused. He had been trying to think of a way to properly find her, something that was much more precise than the DNA tracker. Time would be wasted otherwise, since he couldn't cross his own timeline, and every second was precious. "I just thought of the perfect way! Ha!" He grabbed Wilfred and Sylvia, kissing them each on the forehead before he turned and ran from the kitchen, bolting from the house into the snow.

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The Doctor trudged through the swirls of snow back to the TARDIS. The storm had let up slightly since his conversation with Sylvia and Wilfred, but the wind sent flakes of snow into his already destroyed hair-do. He quickly combed it with his fingers as he ran up the TARDIS steps. He pulled her movable screen around and began to do a scan for background radiation.

Seeing as the battalion of soldiers had gone through the time window, they would have background radiation all over them, as would Donna. He impatiently waited for the scan to complete and it took quite a bit longer than he would have liked. The TARDIS finally made a satisfying ding noise and he stared at the screen for a moment before shouting "Aha!"

On the screen were thirteen blips of golden radiation, travelling at a steady pace through the snow. The soldiers were walking quickly and it seemed as though one of them was carrying Donna, likely because they had knocked her out at well.

It took him several moments to hunt down the time window itself. There were two almost identical spatial disturbances, one near Donna's home and one a few miles away. The one near Donna's house made sense because he saw the soldiers when they kidnapped her, but the window several miles away made little sense.

"Unless..." He had hoped that disturbing Madame Kovarian's equipment would shut down the time window. There was a chance that he had caused this move. It could be the extra time he needed to save Donna.

He quickly set the TARDIS's coordinates as close as he dared to the time window, then threw the switch and felt her lurch to the side as they flew off into the Time Vortex.

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The TARDIS landed with a thud exactly where he had planned, an impressive feat in itself. The Doctor practically catapulted himself from of the blue box and out into the snow. It was finally beginning to slow, giving him an almost unobstructed view of the scene unfolding in front of him.

Around him were brick buildings, creating an alley that led to a wide road full of dozens of small shops. The time window was plastered against a shop front, giving a view into the control center he had been in not so long ago. The soldiers immediately came into view, with their Captain holding a device in his hand that the Doctor recognised. It was built to detect spatial disturbances like the rift that sat in Cardiff, but time windows also fell under that category. Kovarian had almost uncomfortable foresight.

The Doctor reached into his jacket for the sonic screwdriver as he ran down the alleyway, zapping the Captain's too-advanced technology. The metal sparked and fizzled out, causing the soldiers to jump in surprise at the sudden attack. They quickly drew their weapons, searching through the falling snow for their enemy.

The Doctor quickly approached the group, getting as close to them as he dared, which really wasn't close at all. Thirteen guns weren't exactly a happy thing. He noted that they were genuine 1940's weapons, meaning that his sonic screwdriver couldn't do anything without injuring or killing the men, though they might deserve it. Luckily, they didn't know that and he planned on keeping it that way. The men looked cold and tired and he finally saw Donna hanging limply over the tallest man's shoulder. "Let her go."

"She is required, Doctor," the Captain spoke. "I surmise that the disappearance of our other window was your fault."

He shrugged. "Guilty as charged." The snow all around them was slowing, becoming more beautiful than annoying. The cold stayed, but he couldn't feel it as the humans could. Several of the soldiers were eyeing the warmth beyond the time window sitting to his right, but the Doctor couldn't muster any sympathy for them.

"Unfortunately, we cannot let you take her back. Please understand."

The Doctor frowned. "If you don't give her back, I will be very, very cross and you really don't want that." He waved the sonic screwdriver at them as threateningly as he could manage. The Captain showed no signs of discomfort, but the rest of the soldiers looked uneasy.

"I have been informed of your weapon's capabilities," the Captain said quickly. "We have nothing to fear."

"I could use this to vibrate the bullets in your guns and make them explode," he said, waving the sonic in their direction. The soldiers blanched and a few of them tossed their guns a safe distance away into a snow drift. The Captain frowned angrily, but said nothing. The Doctor whistled. "Your choice, Captain."

Just then, the time window shimmered and Madame Kovarian herself stepped into 2011.

Before the Doctor could react, she raised the pistol in her hand and fired.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't mentioned her yet, but I want to give a HUGE thanks to my beta MadameGiry25, aka The Shadow. She has been so much help to me in editing and keeping everyone in character. Thank you Shadow!

The Doctor gasped in pain as the bullet buried itself in his right shoulder. He felt the sonic screwdriver slip from his hand and fall into the snow as he quickly clutched his left hand to the wound.

"Get going, you idiots," Madame Kovarian snarled. She holstered her gun, then turned to the time window and marched back into 1942. The soldiers and their Captain quickly followed before the Doctor could regain his bearings. The last image he saw was of Donna's ginger hair, disappearing into a metaphorical lion's den.

The Time Lord scrambled in the snow for his sonic screwdriver, but it was too late. The time window flickered and died mere seconds after the soldiers marched through. He gritted his teeth in fury, finally fishing the screwdriver from the white fluff at his feet. He haphazardly worked the object into his pocket, groaning as he accidentally moved his injured shoulder.

He took a glance at it and realised that he couldn't move it without enormous pain. His blood soaked through his coat and was still flowing freely. He had to get back to the TARDIS as soon as possible. This was not an injury that would cause him to regenerate, something that Madame Kovarian probably didn't want anyway, but it hurt. She would only want to handicap him, something that she had definitely accomplished. Unbeknownst to her, the TARDIS had a sick bay with medical advances from far into the future. If he could get there before he lost too much blood, he would be as good as new.

He swallowed and began the short walk back to the TARDIS. His rage was slowly seeping into his bones, giving way to sorrow and defeat. He had lost his best friend. He had no way of knowing what method Madame Kovarian meant to use to extract his memories from Donna's mind. Knowing her, it was likely something painful. He didn't know whether Donna would survive the process, but he didn't want to take any chances. She needed to be rescued and fast.

The TARDIS sensed his pain and opened her doors for him without prompting. He almost rolled his eyes at her. "You can't do that every other day?" She quickly shut them again, clipping his left shoe. He huffed, then walked as fast as he could to the sick bay. She had already moved it for him and he shoved the door open into the sterilised environment.

The machine in the corner was his aim and he dragged it over to the bed. The blood from his shoulder was getting dangerously close to dripping down his arm. And this... is the not fun part. He gritted his teeth and carefully peeled his tweed coat away from his arm. He instantly felt dizzy from the pain, but continued despite the intense protestations from his shoulder. The first order of business was removing the bullet, which he was fairly certain was stuck in the bone; Kovarian had shot him from the side instead of head on, and Time Lord anatomy differed enough from human anatomy that the side shot was the more damaging of the two.

He wasn't so crazy as to refuse pain medication and quickly procured an injection. Instead of going through the pain of removing his shirt, he simply ripped the sleeve off. Inspecting the injury, his fear of the bullet being stuck was confirmed. He groaned. This would take a lot longer than he hoped. He set the machine at his side to work; stealing a 51st century robotic surgeon was the best idea he'd ever had.

xxxxxxxxxx

After spending the better part of an hour wrestling with the surgical robot, the bullet was finally separated from his arm. It did nothing to ease the pain, but it was the most difficult part of the procedure. Being a proper Doctor is an odd feeling. The final and most painful part of the procedure was to rebuild his arm.

He had snatched what the Cat People, or the Sisters of Plentitude, called a 'restorative drought', meant to regenerate broken or missing limbs in a matter of hours, during his last visit to them. He had taken Amy and Rory to New Earth to visit the Face of Boe, but quickly discovered Rory's allergy to cats. Their trip was cut short when he sneezed on the Head Nurse.

The Doctor ambled to the cupboard across the room and pulled out the drought, noting that it was the same unpleasant green color as it had been when he had stolen it. It reminded him of the human vegetable called broccoli, which he had never been fond of.

He wasn't entirely sure how much of it he was supposed to drink. He settled with a single swig of the bottle, then waited.

And waited. And waited. And then he waited some more.

Exactly one half hour passed to the second before he suddenly felt a huge rush of pain in his shoulder. He groaned and wriggled as he saw the skin slowly knot together over the injury. He had long since wiped his arm of blood, but the moving and growing muscle caused the dark fluid to leak from the wound yet again. Almost two hours later, the pain finally ceased and he rotated his shoulder experimentally. He felt no pain and let out a sigh of relief, wiping his face of sweat.

His immediate thought was to rush to Donna's aid, until he realised that he was no longer wearing proper clothes. He quickly rushed into the TARDIS's wardrobe to grab another shirt and tweed coat. After hurriedly donning them both and checking his pants to make sure that no blood was on the fabric, he ran back into the console room.

It suddenly struck him that flying back into the Nazi base after setting Madame Kovarian on high alert, so to speak, was a bad idea without a little back up. His first thought was to ask Jack for another favor, but no matter which time he fetched Jack from, having so many "copies" of him in the same time period wasn't a good idea. That left only one logical choice – River.

He ran as quickly as he could, pulling levers and pushing buttons. His destination was the Stormcage and he left the timing in the TARDIS's hands, allowing her to guide him the entire way.

xxxxxxxxxx

"River!"

River raised her head from her diary, alert and suddenly wide awake. It had been two days since Octavian's visit and she was doodling, for lack of a better word. The Stormcage was boring at best and she had few ways of keeping herself entertained aside from leaving. The Doctor's voice echoed down the hall and she leapt up, rushing to the metal bars as her diary fell to the bed. She peered down both sides of the hallway, surprised to find the TARDIS to her left.

"She didn't make any noise," River said curiously, as the Doctor quickly approached the bars. He was breathing hard and she furrowed her eyebrows in a silent question. He raised a finger to pause her inquisitive nature.

"I needed the stabilisers," he explained, gasping air. His pupils were dilated and his skin was clammy and cold. The hair on his head was haphazardly combed and he looked absolutely terrified.

"You needed the stabilisers?" she asked incredulously, reaching a hand through the bars to gently cup his face. Concern flooded her features. "What's happened, sweetie?"

"I need your help," he said, finally calming his breathing. Their voices echoed in the hallway, alerting any passing guards that she had an uninvited visitor. Shadows fell across his face and she suddenly thought that he looked so... old. "Please, River. I need your help."

"What is it?" She searched his features, but all she saw was a mixture of dread and sorrow.

"They took her," he said, running a hand down his face. "They've kidnapped Donna."

River's hand recoiled from his face as if she had been burned. He watched her take a step back, then another. She said nothing, only stared into his eyes, trying to communicate an emotion that had no words. Fear.

The shadows on his face seemed to darken. "River," he said, lowering his voice. "You can't-"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She dropped her raised hand and swallowed, suddenly nervous under his gaze. He never unnerved her. Not ever. Except now. Now he was more than angry; he was cornered and afraid. Her Doctor was truly afraid. "I can't go."

His face contorted into rage. He slammed his hands against the metal bars and grasped them with white knuckles, shaking them like he was the one trapped inside the cage. "What could possibly keep you from helping me now? What could be so terrible that you can't help me save her?"

She could never remember seeing him so angry, except at Demon's Run. It hurt to have him so upset with her, but there was nothing she could do. By all accounts, there was even less she could do this time and it hurt all the more because, for once, they were somewhat linear. It pained her more than she could say. She squared her shoulders and steeled her voice, speaking so softly that he could barely hear her. "Spoilers."

He angrily turned to go, but she stopped him with a quick step forward and the tug of a tweed sleeve. "Wait, please Doctor. I do have one thing that may help you."

The Time Lord's gaze softened, eager for any assistance she could give him. He turned back to her. "What is it?"

"Do you know the Prophecy of Demons Run?" This was as much of a spoiler as she could give, but it wouldn't make sense to him immediately. She just hoped that he would realise it in time.

"You know how I feel about destiny," he said, waving a finger at her. "It's annoying and it never calls you back after a date." He saw her smile and his own frown softened even further.

Demon's Run was not an incident he cared to remember, though it was only a few hours ago for him. He had lost baby Melody and even though he knew she would live, that didn't mean she couldn't be hurt in the meantime. He had returned her to Amy and Rory, but he knew that wouldn't be permanent and River would never tell him anything about it, no matter how hard he begged.

River fought to hold back a laugh. "It's important," she added firmly. He nodded for her to continue. She swallowed carefully and began to recite, watching the light shift in his eyes at every word.

"Demons run when a good man goes to war,  
Night will fall and drown the sun,  
When a good man goes to war

Friendship dies and true love lies  
The night will fall and the dark will rise  
When a good man goes to war

Demons run, but count the cost  
The battle is won, but the child is lost"

He blinked a few times, then nodded as if expecting more. "That's it?" He did not count himself as a good man, so the prophecy seemed out of place to him.

She almost sighed. He could be so thick-headed. "I'm telling you because it will be important, sweetie." She reached through the bar to gently grasp his hand. "And I'm sorry."

He didn't shy away from the contact as she expected him to, but instead became exasperated and impatient like someone frustrated with a puzzle. "What does that mean?"

"It means..." she replied softly. "That the prophecy of Demon's Run isn't a prophecy. It's a legend."

She could see the gears in his head begin to turn furiously at her words. He recited the phrases under his breath, almost too quietly for her to hear. She watched nothing change in his face, so she recited everything once more, but emphasised certain words to give him as much of a clue as she dared. The Doctor's eyes suddenly widened.

And he ran.


	8. Chapter 7

The Doctor couldn't spend time mulling over the legend that River had recited to him. Her implications seemed odd to him on the whole, but the part he focused the most on was the final part, "The battle is won, but the child is lost". He worried that he would ultimately not be able to return Melody to her parents. The baby, however, was home for now, and that's all that mattered. Until she got kidnapped again, that is. The rest of the legend was pure gibberish to him. He hoped that it wasn't bad, but felt that said hope was futile.

Not having the foresight to ask Adele about the building when he had the chance, the Doctor foraged in the TARDIS's data banks for the building's blueprints. Upon finding them, he studied them intently for several moments before feeling confident in his occasionally dubious memory. The most logical place for Donna to be was a room large enough to hold a few specific 51st century machines. That narrowed her possible location down considerably, as only four rooms fell into that category.

Upon further inspection of the blueprints, he realized that one of the four rooms was the console room that he had been brought to by Jeckeln. He immediately crossed that room off of his list and focused on the other three. All three were located in the south-eastern portion of the compound.

A thought suddenly occurred to him that the distance between the machines and their power source would need to be as short as possible for the highest efficiency, especially since he knew which energy source Madame Kovarian was using. He noted that only one of the three rooms was on the outer wall and chose that as the most likely location.

He set the TARDIS off into the Time Vortex. As much as he wanted to use the front door approach for Donna's rescue, she absolutely could not see the TARDIS under any circumstances. The fact that the guards and Kovarian would be calling him 'Doctor' was bad enough. It was advantageous, in this particular situation, that he no longer looked like a string bean in a necktie. He only hoped nothing happened that would cause her to remember. The process of extracting his memories alone could kill her, if the memories themselves didn't. He only hoped that he was quick enough.

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Donna groaned.

She couldn't remember a headache this bad; Nerys's New Years party hangover was a close second, as terrible as it had been. Looking around was the last thing she wanted to do, but several strange noises around her warranted it. Finding herself unable to move her arms or legs, she opened her eyes to dull light and unfamiliar people.

On both sides of the bed she was stuck to, machines were making unpleasant humming and beeping noises. The door several yards in front of her was guarded by two men in Nazi uniforms with rather large guns. It was then that she suddenly remembered the fight that had occurred at her mother's home. "What- Where am I? Where is my husband?"

From her left, a female figure with an unattractive eyepatch and a stern countenance stepped into view. "No need to fuss, Miss Noble. My name is Madame Kovarian. Don't worry, you're all taken care of."

Donna furrowed her eyebrows. "That's Mrs. Temple-Noble to you, Madame Pirate Patch!" She glanced down and saw her wrists and ankles shackled to the metal bed that she was perched on. "You kidnapped me! When I get my lawyers on you..." She struggled against the metal, but found that it only cut into her skin. However, that didn't keep her from speaking.

The plastic smile on Kovarian's face disappeared. "You are required, Donna Noble."

"Temple-Noble!" the ginger woman insisted harshly, half sitting up.

Madame Kovarian ignored her and began booting up the machine to her right. In precisely three minutes, it would have enough power built up to scan the human's entire brain and fish out any and all memories that they deemed useful for their war, providing the fuel was ready.

"Tell me, Mrs. Noble. What do you know of a man called the Doctor?"

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The TARDIS appeared in a room quite close to the location that he thought Donna was being kept in, but it was far enough away that guards being anywhere near it was unlikely. Simply walking out of the room into a hallway full of Nazi soldiers wasn't quite on the agenda today.

He frowned in thought as the TARDIS column came to a halt. He wasn't entirely sure how- Oh.

His face split into a grin fit for a kid in a candy store, then set the TARDIS off into the vortex again. This would be fun.

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On the eastern side of the compound, toward the southern exit, dozens of men, women and children were being lined up for the furnaces.

The fires were being stoked for the first extermination of the day. The dozen soldiers herded Jewish prisoners with guns and harsh words. The people had been brought here by carts for this specific purpose. Madame Kovarian required at least one hundred in quick succession, but her aim was unknown to the soldiers. They simply did as they were told.

Once the fire reached its proper intensity, the first group of people were split from the rest of the mass and escorted forward, but they didn't get very far.

Sitting directly in front of the furnace, completely covering the entrance, was a blue box around eight feet high. The soldiers balked and panicked, all twelve gathering in front of the obstruction, for they had been informed of this eventuality. What they hadn't been told of, however, was what happened next.

The man they had been trained to identify as the Doctor stepped out from the blue box carrying half a dozen huge picnic baskets.

"Hello everyone!" he called cheerily to the prisoners, waving as friendly as he could manage with three baskets on each arm. He quickly opened the first one and began handing out loaves of bread and large triangles of cheese, along with containers filled with the coolest water the TARDIS could produce at such short notice. A ripple of surprise and shock drifted down the line of dishevelled people. Who was this man?

The soldiers raised their guns at the alien once they realised what exactly he was doing and fired.

"Unfortunately for you," the Doctor said, unperturbed. "I've extended the TARDIS's shields. Nothing can get through that. Now." He reached into his jacket pocket with his free hand and pulled out his trusty sonic screwdriver. Pointing it at the soldier's guns, he pressed the button and the familiar whirr filled the air. "Oh look," he said. "I've expanded your bullet casings; if you try to shoot, they'll only explode in your faces."

The skin of all twelve soldiers drained of color, making them white as a bedsheet. The Doctor's face suddenly turned so dark that the picnic baskets hanging off of his arms might as well have been ropes for the gallows. He marched slowly up to the group of men, who were crowding close together and looking to each other for a plan. "If I were you," he said softly. "I would do the smart thing. And run."

And they ran, dropping their guns as they went.

The men, women and children burst into the loudest cheers the Doctor had heard in a long time. He grinned, then finished passing out the food. It wouldn't be long before the soldiers returned with reinforcements, so they had to hurry. As soon as he was sure every person had something to eat, he clapped his hands to get their attention. They all crowded around him, listening attentively to this wonderful man who had just saved their lives.

"I need all of you to get into this blue box," he said without preamble, pointing at the TARDIS.

Several of the men and women looked at each other dubiously, blinking in confusion. Had they just been saved by a nutter? "How are we all supposed to fit in there?" a man with brown hair asked skeptically.

The Doctor noticed their glances and waved his arms about. "It's bigger on the inside, I promise! Look." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS doors opened to reveal the expanse inside.

Several children had wormed their way to the front of the group and were able to see the inside of the spaceship. They gasped, then quickly recovered from their shock and rushed inside, ignoring the protestations of their parents. The Doctor assured the adults that all of the children were perfectly safe until he heard a loud crash come from beyond the blue doors. "Oi! What are you breaking in there?"

He quickly rushed into the TARDIS to assess the damage. "Don't touch anything!" he yelled, watching a boy reach for the wibbly lever. It took several minutes to coax every adult into the ship, but it was eventually achieved. They crowded the console room completely, leaving the children to sit on the laps of their mothers and fathers.

The Doctor looked around at all the grimy faces, absolutely giddy with joy at seeing them all alive. Now... to business.

He clapped his hands again to get their attention. It took a moment, but every person on the TARDIS was soon looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat. "Hello everyone. I'm the Doctor and this-" he said, spinning about and gesturing to the machine they were all standing in- "is my... ship. I'm glad you're all safe, but I have a friend... who isn't." He paused, looking at the unchanging faces around him. Every person, including the smallest child, was silent. "They've kidnapped her and plan on... doing evil, mad things to her brain. I need to rescue her as soon as possible. But to do so, I need some help."

There was a subtle shift in the room. The women were frowning, but the men just nodded, as if this was the way to repay him for saving their lives. The Doctor continued. "I can't promise you'll all come out alive and I'm not having any women or children in there, so don't think about it." He raised a finger and pointed around the room at various mothers with their children.

"My friend..." he paused, then swallowed. "My best friend is in there and she's in danger. I do need help, but if you'll help me... I've got a plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PICNIC BASKETS.
> 
> That is all.


	9. Chapter 8

"What's going on?"

Madame Kovarian frowned, turning to the machines that were quickly shutting down. They weren't receiving any power and promptly shut themselves off. The 51st century woman made a noise almost like a growl, then started for the door. Donna Noble had been carrying on the entire time, but she had the foresight to gag the woman before she gave everyone a headache. Trying to pry information from the human about the Doctor had been futile; she refused to listen to a word anyone said.

The door opened before she could get there and she froze on the spot. A small group of heavily arms guards stood outside the door, standing around a single man, who stepped into the dim light of the room. "Sir!" she said, giving the man a salute. She hated playing the underling, but she needed this man's cooperation and he needed her power.

Adolf Hitler gave her an almost imperceptible nod as his soldiers filed into the room, then spoke. "Is it ready?"

"Well, Mein Fuhrer..."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Understand?" The Doctor looked at the eleven men who all nodded at the same time, locking the information he had just given them into their minds. He smiled.

He had retrieved the guns abandoned by the guards and handed them out to the most capable looking men. The guns were, of course, unusable, but no one else knew that. The rest of the people were to stay on the TARDIS and not move until they returned. The Doctor had given them a very short piloting lesson, instructing them on which lever to push should he not return. It would take them to England, a place for them to start again. Several of them had made protests about leaving their native country, but he would have none of it. If he was dead, that would be the safest place for them.

"Hold on tight!" The Doctor reached across the console to pull a lever. The TARDIS whirred and disappeared into the vortex. The stabilisers were almost required in this case, since there were so many people and even more opportunities for them to get injured. He set the coordinates for the same spot he had materialised in earlier; enough time had passed that there wouldn't be a problem with the universe imploding.

Upon landing, the Doctor checked his pocket for the anaesthesia he was going to give Donna. She couldn't see the TARDIS under any circumstances, but he still had to use it to get her home. The most logical way was to knock her out, but he didn't want to have to do it in a violent way that would hurt her. He could only imagine the protests she'd give him.

He motioned for the twelve men to follow him out of the TARDIS. The time machine had lovingly procured them all Nazi disguises and while the Doctor did not like the men in the least, he could say that their hats weren't too shabby. Each man was dressed identically as a guard with one of the broken guns in their hands. They looked somewhat like a group of soldiers; the Doctor only hoped that they could fool the real ones.

They quickly filed out of the room that the TARDIS was hidden in. One of the men noticed the Doctor holding his gun upside down and quickly corrected him; the Time Lord gave him a thumbs up in thanks. They swiftly marched down the hall, if it could even be called marching. The Doctor walked at the lead, far too calmly to be a soldier. As they approached the room that he was sure Donna was being kept in, the exterior guards called them to a halt. "What are you all doing here?"

"A soldier reported that he might have seen the Doctor. We were asked to come reinforce and protect Madame Kovarian," one of the men said before the Doctor himself could even formulate a response. The Time Lord frowned in disappointment as the other guards sent each other dubious looks. After a moment, they allowed the twelve disguised men inside the room. As they marched in, the Doctor saw Donna, Madame Kovarian, and a man who could have only been the head honcho himself. Hitler's here?

The eleven men were caught off guard by the Fuhrer's presence. The Doctor hadn't said anything about him being there. They all suddenly wished that their guns really did work. As smoothly as they all could manage, they saluted him and then Madame Kovarian. "Sir, Ma'am, a soldier reported seeing the Doctor, but we have no confirmation as of yet. We were sent as extra protection for you and the prisoner."

Said prisoner looked up from her place on the bed and rolled her eyes.

Madame Kovarian frowned, then turned to the machine at her right. "Very well men, take up your positions."

The men stood for a moment, before the Doctor hissed under his breath. "Stand around the perimeter of the room. I'm by the ginger." The men quickly did as he told them, spreading out around the perimeter of the room and standing at the attention position that they had seen so many of the soldiers performing.

Madame Kovarian seemed thoroughly distracted by the fact that the Fuhrer was there. It seemed that she hadn't been expecting him either. What's more, he seemed to be angry with her. "If we cannot get the machines up and running-"

"I realise that, Sir. They must be repaired, that is all. I have someone on the way."

The man did not seem placated, but nodded all the same. "Send for me when the procedure is set to begin again." He turned to leave, which required all soldiers to salute him as he did so. The twelve disguised men, plus the original two, turned to salute the Fuhrer. The instant that the man left the room, the Doctor dropped to the floor behind the metal bed, hoping that he had avoided the eyes of the two true guards. No alarm was sounded, so after a full minute of breathing as quietly as possible, he crept along the floor toward the machine at Donna's left.

It was a large bulk of a device, but the point was to make it permanently inoperable. It, along with the machine across the room, was off at the moment, a good sign that the outside soldiers hadn't regained their bearings and retrieved more people yet. The sonic would make too much noise, so he resorted to good old fashioned destruction. He began pulling off dials and levers, stripping wires and even biting through one or two of the more stubborn ones. It took him a moment to realise that this particular machine was meant to house the information that they were to take from Donna. He had hoped that it would be the machine used to extract the memories, but no matter. Just destroying this alone would give them no place to keep the information.

Several minutes passed with Madame Kovarian pacing in irritation around the opposite side of the room. She had actually sent her 'mechanic', as it were, to check on the furnaces, but he had yet to report back. She was becoming more restless by the minute. Donna had taken to glaring at her angrily.

The Doctor continued to slowly destroy the machine. He wished he could use the sonic; it would be infinitely faster, but he trudged on instead. Besides, the device had an interesting new feature he had to try out. He often spent time tinkering with the screwdriver, adding more features than he took away. After the incident with the Pandorica, well, this particular feature was not to be skipped.

The men standing around the perimeter of the room were becoming restless. The Doctor had warned them about attacking the guards or Madame Kovarian herself. The guards had working guns and who knew what Madame Kovarian had at her disposal? There was a blaster sitting on her hip, but she could have other things hidden almost anywhere. The future practically turned the act of killing into an art form and he didn't want anything to happen to any of these men.

Suddenly, there echoed an announcement over the internal communication system. A nervous male voice said, "The Doctor has been spotted. Repeat. The Doctor has been spotted. All battalions to their assigned positions. Repeat. The Doctor has been spotted..."

I suppose that's my cue. He pulled the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and changed the setting. He held the green end to his mouth and heard his words echo in the concrete room, a sound at least as loud as the system he had used not all that long ago. He pumped as much venom and anger as he could into his words, letting her feel his unbridled rage at her actions, that she would dare kidnap his best friend. "Oh, Madame Kovarian. Fooling you once was a joy. Fooling you twice the same way... Now that's a privilege."

The woman spun in confusion, the booming voice coming from every direction. The Doctor carefully changed the setting to pop open Donna's shackles, then quickly turned the screwdriver on the light in the ceiling. It popped and darkness enveloped the room. Donna screamed behind the gag.

The eleven ex-prisoners sprung into action. Beneath their hats sat goggles that would allow them to see in the dark. The four nearest the door grabbed the guards, using their guns as blunt weapons to promptly knock them out. The four on the opposite side of the room split in half, two of them rushing to apprehend Madame Kovarian while the other two made for the machine to her right, pulling it apart much faster than the Doctor had the other. The three men on the Doctor's side of the room split as well. One of the men watched the Doctor drug the ginger woman into sleep, then pulled off her gag and helped the Time Lord carry her. The other two men joined the first four as the soldiers from outside the room came bursting through the door, shining an uncomfortable amount of light on the activity inside. Those soldiers were quickly dispatched. The two men who had captured Madame Kovarian roughly shoved her over to the bed that Donna had been laying on. After much struggling on her part, they finally had her strapped to the bed in Donna's place.

"Doctor," she hissed angrily. "You-"

"How did you know about Donna's mind?" he asked through clenched teeth, still carrying the ginger woman. More soldiers would be here very soon, but he had to figure this out. "How did you know?" No one knew but Donna's family, the friends that had been on Davros' ship, and himself.

"You didn't think the legend of Donna Noble would survive?" she asked, seemingly surprised at his oversight. "The woman who saved twenty seven planets? You're overconfident, Doctor. You travelled to those planets, didn't you? You told them what she'd done, what she'd lost. Too many people knew of her sacrifice. None were brave enough to chance getting those memories for themselves. They were all too afraid of you. All of them except me."

"And that was your mistake," he replied sharply. He looked to the man at his right. "Let's go."

The man nodded and they carried Donna out of the room. The Doctor knew Madame Kovarian's story didn't make much sense. He had travelled to those planets, but he never told anyone about his own mind being copied into Donna's head. That was information that too many would kill to get their hands on. There was definitely something else going on here, but he couldn't figuring it out at the moment, nor did he have the time to.

The men quickly escorted the Doctor and Donna to the TARDIS, just before dozens and dozens of soldiers appeared in the halls, yelling and arming their guns. The ten men shuffled into the time machine as fast as they could, to the cheers and yells of the remaining ex-prisoners. The Doctor and the man who was so graciously helping him carried Donna up the stairs and carefully handed her off to a couple who had been instructed on the location of the ginger woman's old room. She would be able to sleep in peace there for several hours, giving the lot of them plenty of time to finish one final project.

The Doctor grinned and set the TARDIS off into the vortex.

xxxxxxxxxx

Setting the Nazi compound on high alert would pull soldiers away from their normal stations and set them in strategic places, such as the Fuhrer's side, to protect him. The TARDIS landed silently and the Doctor ran down the stairs to peek out the blue double doors.

Just as he suspected, the now inactive time window machines had been abandoned in favor of protecting the Fuhrer and higher officers. The Doctor looked up to see the first light he had exploded as an escape plan. Never underestimate electricity! Benjamin Franklin never did listen to me...

The open TARDIS doors flooded the room with plenty of light and he turned the sonic screwdriver on the machines. He pulled off the metal covers and gazed down into the multitude of wires and cords. There was no electricity running through any of it, he was pleased to see. He threw the metal to the floor, then ran back into the TARDIS. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Every child, which ended up at count being about twenty or so, stood quivering with anticipation at their own chance to help stop the evil men who were killing their people.

"Have at it!" The Doctor stood away from the door, watching them run outside and tear into the wires with wild abandon. He could remember very well the kind of messes and destruction that small children could wreak. Keeping them cooped up in the TARDIS with that kind of energy wasn't a good idea; better to give them pride and fun at the same time.

After several minutes of chatting with their thankful parents, he walked outside to assess the damage. He raised an eyebrow; they had really done a number on this place. Bits and parts were strewn everywhere and several of the children had climbed inside the console, crushing as many things as they could find while pretending that the metal object was a huge ship on the ocean. He grinned. "Alright, alright, time to go!" Several of them groaned, but they climbed out and ran back into the TARDIS. Once every child was back inside, the Doctor rummaged around inside the bits and bobs for the engine that would convert the energy from the furnaces into usable energy to bust open a time window, more or less the way that the Nazis could travel through time. He found it after a few minutes, but it was already smashed to his satisfaction.

He promptly waltzed back into the TARDIS with a smile. "Alright then, let's go!"

The Doctor was halfway up the stairs when several people voiced their protests once more about living in England. They argued that they had no place to live, no money, and most importantly, no way to speak their language. After several minutes of debate and references to their heritage, the Doctor finally relented. He couldn't very well ask Jack to help a group this size and they would know how to live in their own country at the very least. He set the TARDIS to western Germany and touched down near the French border.

xxxxxxxxxx

Every person thanked him profusely for saving their lives and hugged him before leaving the TARDIS. He watched them go with a heavy heart, despite the fact that every pair of arms was full of food from the TARDIS's kitchen. Staying in Germany almost guaranteed that they would be captured again and he wouldn't be there to save them. The children wrapped themselves around his legs and he grinned, ruffling their hair. They thanked him for letting them help and promised that they would help their parents as much as they could. He waved goodbye at the group as they walked over the damp dirt and grass of Germany, off to their hopefully bright futures.

As the last person left, the TARDIS shut her doors, eager to get moving again. The Doctor had a ginger to return home.


	10. Chapter 9

"But what if she doesn't come back?" Shawn moaned, throwing his arms up in the air. Sylvia and Wilfred were sitting on the couch watching Donna's husband pace around the living room.

"She'll be fine, the Doctor said he'd bring her back safe and sound!" Wilfred said confidently. Sylvia gave him a sideways glance that said he had too much faith in the alien. Wilfred ignored it.

"Who is this Doctor bloke anyway?" Shawn asked irritably. "She's my wife, I should be out there looking for her!"

"Calm down," Sylvia said, a bit too loudly. She frowned and grabbed the remote, turning the telly down to complete silence. "We told you about the Doctor before you and Donna got married. You knew this could happen."

"That's true, we did!" Wilfred said, sipping at his tea. If Shawn was to be her husband, he had to know how to protect her. They knew that if Shawn caused her death, he'd blame himself for the rest of his life whether he knew about her condition beforehand or not. At least he could prevent that if he knew.

"But if she doesn't come back, then-"

Sylvia jumped as a sudden rush of air buffeted the three of them. A sound much like a wheeze filled the air, accompanied by a materialising blue box in their kitchen. "Ha!" Wilfred jumped up as fast as his aging body would let him and he led the rush into the kitchen, where the TARDIS sat perfectly still, completely blocking their entire kitchen from all angles. Wilfred knocked on the blue door awkwardly. "Doctor?"

The door flew open and there stood the Doctor, all silly grins and floppy hair. "I've got her! She's still asleep, but that's probably for the best. Come on, help me carry her." Wilfred needed no more than that to send him marching happily into the time machine. Sylvia and Shawn stood outside, staring at it dubiously before peaking in. They quickly retreated to the safety and comfort of the living room, perfectly content to stay away from time machines and spaceships.

The Doctor led Wilfred, who took several moments to comment on the Doctor's new decor, to Donna's room. They carefully put an arm over each shoulder and carried her out. The Doctor was surprised at how strong Wilfred was; carrying his telescope up and down the hill every day gave the elderly man strength that most would never suspect. Together, they carried Donna out of the TARDIS and to the couch. Shawn never stepped foot inside the blue box, but he began fawning over his wife before they took two steps out of it.

They let her down gently and the Doctor smiled in satisfaction. "She gave them hell the entire time, you know. Well, I think she did, anyway. She had a gag when I got there," he added by way of explanation.

Wilfred smiled and brushed his granddaughter's hair from her face. "That's my girl." The ginger woman didn't stir, but continued to sleep peacefully, blissfully unaware.

"Now," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "It's very important that she doesn't remember me. Pretend she had the flu or... something."

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Or something." The blond woman abruptly lashed out and hit the Doctor on the arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder, remembering that he had a bullet in that spot not too long ago. "What was that for?"

"For putting my daughter in danger!" she snipped, then grabbed her cup from the table next to the couch and bustled off to make more tea, grumbling the entire way.

Wilfred glowered after her, then turned to the Doctor. "Thank you, for saving her." The man opened his arms to the Doctor and they hugged goodbye. Shawn also expressed his thanks in the form of a rather painful handshake.

"Oh!" The Doctor reached into his pocket and fished out a rather worn piece of paper. "Here." He handed it to Wilfred. "You keep that safe. If something else happens to Donna or if you ever need me, call that number and the TARDIS will pick it up."

Wilfred blinked in surprise. "It can do that?" he asked, amazed.

"She can do that," the Doctor corrected with a mischievous look toward his beloved box. Wilfred's expression became one of confusion and the Doctor hurriedly had to explain the TARDIS's gender.

After exchanging other farewell pleasantries, the Doctor stepped back into his time machine. "It was good to see you again, Wilfred. Dad," he corrected with a smile.

"You too, son," Wilfred replied, clapping the Doctor on the shoulder. "You too. Be safe!"

"Always," he replied with a grin. "You be safe too, don't let Donna near any museums for a while!"

Wilfred laughed. "Will do, Doctor. Goodbye!" He waved as the Doctor gave him one last smile, then darted back into the maze that was the TARDIS.

He ran up the steps rather energetically, pleased that he had been able to rescue both Donna and the group of Jewish prisoners. He began to hum to himself as he set the randomiser on the TARDIS. A fun trip didn't sound remiss, especially after all the rescuing he had been doing lately. Unfortunately for him, the TARDIS suddenly set the time rotor moving before he could get everything done properly. "Oi! What's wrong now? Where are we going?" The TARDIS, as usual, did not reply, only set them both flying through time to the place that he needed to be.

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Upon landing and peeling himself off of the floor, the Doctor checked the screen. "Leadworth? Why are we-" He felt his stomach drop as he suddenly realised why the TARDIS had brought him here; Amy and Rory's house was outside. Melody must have been...

He cautiously walked to the double doors, but the married couple reached them first. Amy was knocking on the wood as hard as she possibly could. The Doctor rushed to the door and pulled it open before she split her knuckles.

Amy quite literally fell into his arms, completely hysterical, gasping and sobbing. "Doctor, she's gone, Melody's gone! They took her, they took her toys, her pictures, everything..."

Rory stood next to his wife, furious and crying. He couldn't stand still for the life of him, obviously angry at himself for letting this happen. The Doctor wanted to tell him that none of this was his fault, but Amy abruptly let go of him and pulled up the sleeve of her sweater. "Doctor, look."

The Doctor examined her arm closely and found the precise thing he had feared the most. On Amy's skin, in black marker, sat five tally marks.

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The three retreated into the Williams' residence. The husband and wife pair were not very talkative, but the Doctor managed to learn that it was 2013, almost exactly two years since he had returned baby Melody to them. He also learned that Amy was pregnant, though she was barely showing at just over two months. They had a blood test done to determine the baby's sex and Rory won the bet that it was a boy. They had been planning a way to change Melody's bedroom into a room for both of their children when she was taken.

Amy and Rory sat on the couch, with the latter rubbing his wife's back in a comforting gesture. She held a tissue in one hand and the other was lying limply in her lap. "Please get her back, Doctor."

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly, standing in front of their multitude of family photos. They would not like what he was about to tell them. "I can't," he said softly.

"What?" Rory's voice immediately rose with anger. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I mean I can't, Rory. I can't save her. I'm sorry." He barely turned to gaze at them, but their eyes burned him to the core.

Rory seemed to dig deep within himself, pulling out a rage that the Time Lord had only seen twice before. "You are going to get my daughter back right now-"

"I can't!" he bellowed, because being angry was easier than being sad. "Don't you get it? She's the little girl! The girl in the spacesuit, the girl that shoots me!"

They both froze, suddenly terrified. River said they were never allowed to tell him what had happened during the picnic on the lake. "How do you know about that?" Rory demanded.

"I know," he said mockingly. "Because Amy told me."

Amy swallowed. "I thought you were the ganger. I didn't know it was the real you. And I never said anything about who killed you, only that you died and you invited us to your death."

"When you shot at the little girl," he said quietly. "You said you were saving my life. Two plus two is four."

Amy shook her head. She knew now that she had almost killed her own daughter. Melody or the Doctor. How could she possibly choose? "Melody is two years old, she can't kill anyone."

"You saw her!" the Doctor said. "She was at least six or seven. They must have kept her for a long time. They can manipulate the mind of anyone who looks at them, you know that. She is a weapon, just like Kovarian wanted..."

"How could she be a weapon?" Rory said softly. "She's just a little girl. A peaceful little girl."

Amy dabbed at her eyes, smudging her mascara. "Doctor, Melody has been to the hospital seven times since you brought her back. They did something to her. She has almost died so many times and no one can figure out why. And now she's gone." The ginger woman began to cry again.

At once, everything clicked into place for the Time Lord. The pieces fell in their correct places and he could see much of the big, terrible picture. "I am so stupid. She's sick," he said quickly, gears in his head turning as fast as they could.

"What do you mean she's sick?" Rory demanded, seeing something in the Doctor's face that said he knew what was wrong with his daughter.

"She's not-" The Doctor ran a hand down his face. He never told them about Melody being half Time Lord. He didn't know if she had two hearts, but since her parents never noticed, he could likely peg that answer as a 'no'. "She doesn't have a disease. I mean she's unstable."

"What does that mean?" Amy pleaded, letting tears fall from her eyes. An answer to this problem was all that they wanted. A healthy, little girl who could be just that: a healthy, little girl.

"Melody is... Melody is half Time Lord. That's why they want her." He watched their expressions change, but he focused on Rory's rather than Amy's. Both faces were shocked, but Rory recovered faster and his expression turned into anger.

"How can she be-"

"Please listen to me, Rory," the Doctor asked quickly. "I promise that I have done nothing... human-ish with your wife. Melody was conceived on the TARDIS, on your wedding night according to the maths, while we were all flying through the time vortex. The exposure to raw time energy is what made my people in the first place. But you can't just make a Time Lord like that, it would be unstable and most likely die. She survived through Amy, as far as I can tell, because Amy had background radiation from travelling in the TARDIS. Background radiation in itself is completely harmless, but in this, particular case-"

"It probably saved our baby," Amy finished slowly, looking to Rory. "She would have been exposed to it from being around you, too."

The Doctor nodded. "That doesn't mean she's any less your baby, either of you. She couldn't have grown in the first place if you hadn't... uh, made her," he finished awkwardly. "But she's unstable now, she doesn't have that energy to... well, feed off of."

"So... does that mean she needs to constantly travel in the TARDIS to stay alive?" Rory asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, running a hand through his hair. "I don't even know if she can regenerate. That alone could save her, if she could do it, but I don't know."

"Then find out," Amy said, glaring up at him from her chair. "Go ask River, she would know."

"You know I can't do that, Amy. She would never tell me anyway. I-" He paused in realisation, then smacked himself in the head. "I should have seen that! That's why they had that machine, down in the basement, where River... shot all of them, where they took you, Amy. It looks exactly like the TARDIS that we found in Craig's flat. They use that to stabilise her. The spacesuit creates an environment where she won't get sick, she won't get tired, and she won't get free. They need her for something, but I don't know what."

"Well figure it out then!" Amy yelled, burying her head in her hands.

The Doctor looked to Rory helplessly, but the human was paying more attention to his wife than anything else. He did feel truly helpless. Even if he could find Melody, she would not be the child that Amy and Rory knew. She would be older and there was a possibility that she did not remember them. He didn't know the full extent of the Silence's abilities and that troubled him. He didn't know what else he could say to the Ponds. They exuded an aura of impatience, anger and sadness. He knew that they wanted him to leave.

As he turned to go, the Doctor caught something out of the corner of his eye. An old picture at the very end of the shelf, yellowed and folded in the upper right corner. He crossed to it and plucked the frame from it's perch, staring at it in wonder. "Rory! Rory, who is this?" He waved the picture in the human's face and Rory glared up at him in anger. "That's my grandmother."

"Grandmother..." The Doctor stared in wonder at the picture. It was old, yes, but taken in 1946, according to the writing in the bent corner. Standing there, hand in hand with a dark haired man, was none other than Adele herself. She looked considerably happier than the Doctor had seen her before. "I saved her," he said softly, half to himself.

"You did what?" Rory frowned. "She was German, she escaped the Nazis during World War II."

"I know, I saved her!" The Doctor felt a slow smile creep over his face. "Rory, she took care of Melody."

Amy looked up from her silent sobs, sniffling between words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that she took care of Melody!" The Doctor brought the picture to the couple and sat on the couch next to them. "When Madame Kovarian took Melody, she took her to 1942. With Nazis and... Adele was Melody's wet nurse. She took care of her."

Rory took the picture, awe washing over him at this revelation. "Wait... Does that mean you are the only reason I exist?"

The Doctor scratched behind his ear. "Ah, well... Maybe?"

Rory frowned and put the picture on the table in front of him. "If you aren't going to save our daughter, then get out of my house."

The Doctor took one final look at the picture. Adele was strong enough to move on and create another family, despite heavy losses. Now, Amy and Rory were going to have to do the same.

"If..." the Doctor began, standing from the couch. "If I can find her... Melody. If I can find Melody, it will have to be after our trip to America. She's the little girl in the spacesuit. All of that has to happen."

"But why?" Amy demanded. "I just want my daughter back!"

"I know Amy, and I'm sorry, but she'll have to come back as a seven year old. That's the only option." He looked nervously from one Pond to the other.

Amy stayed silent, but Rory nodded his consent. "Please bring her home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Torchwood, *SPOILERS* Martha's body develops an advanced immune system from the background radiation she acquired by travelling in the TARDIS. I decided that a similar explanation would work for Melody, in case you thought I was just pulling that out of my hat. ;) Which, by the way, is totally a red fez. (Not really, I wish.)


	11. Chapter 10

The Doctor bounded up the TARDIS steps, then stopped short to lean against the console. He was completely unsure of how he was supposed to find seven-year-old Melody. Florida was the most likely location, but where in Florida? Would he run into more Silence? Madame Kovarian again? Something even worse?

A sudden thought gave him an idea. Both humans and Time Lords had particular energy signals, signals that belonged to them only. Melody was half human, half Time Lord, a completely unique energy signal. That signal, being so unique, could be tracked through some simple technology. He set the TARDIS to scan for unusual Earth life at any time around 1969, to ensure the child's proper age, and waited.

In the meantime, he set off on a hunt for some Jammie Dodgers. He hadn't eaten in quite a long time, even for Time Lords. As he pulled the package from the kitchen cupboard, he heard a ding noise echo down the TARDIS's hallways. Pleased that it had only taken a few minutes, he ran back to the console room, Jammie Dodgers in hand.

He opened the package and stuffed two of the delicious treats in his mouth while he studied the results of the scan. "...But that doesn't make any sense!" he declared, though it sounded more like "Aht hosent hake any sensh!"

The scanner was telling him that the signal, though it moved from Florida to England, never once came anywhere near Leadworth. In fact, he charted the signal over time and it seemed to stay in London almost exclusively, except during strange periods of disappearance that he could not account for.

This troubled him, especially concerning what he should do next. What would warrant him never returning Melody to her parents? And how could a seven-year-old child survive like that on her own? He knew that this was what he had to do. What he didn't know was why.

The TARDIS, who usually voiced her opinion in the form of hijacking their trips, had been pleasantly quiet this entire time. He looked up at the ceiling. "Why are you even letting me choose?" he asked, picking out another Jammie Dodger. "You've been taking me everywhere for this little adventure. You know where I have to go next. What I choose rarely matters because we always end up somewhere else anyway. So, Florida or England. Wherever we need to go."

He popped the treat in his mouth as the TARDIS, happy that he finally realised who exactly the driver was, thrummed and set her time rotor into action. Realistically, she would have taken him precisely where he needed to go, whether he actually wanted to go there or not. She had been silent because she knew what was about to happen and she knew that nothing would be the same ever again.

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The TARDIS came to a halt in England, which surprised the Doctor. He swallowed his last Jammie Dodger and tossed the box over his shoulder. "Alright, old girl," he said, patting the console. "I trust you. Let's see where we are." He scanned the outside perimeter to find himself near a playground. Several children around eight years of age were climbing and swinging and generally putting the equipment to good use. The Doctor did a quick scan and found that one of the children was definitely not just human.

Her hair was fiery ginger, a color that he wouldn't expect aside from the fact that he was now completely certain she could regenerate. The scans showed that the girl was half human, half Time Lord. Tracing her timeline, he had a match. This was Melody, no mistake about it. And he actually had the opportunity to find out why he brought her here before actually bringing her here. Perhaps that was the whole point. Perhaps... He would not know to bring her here unless he knew why first. Bloody paradoxes...

He trotted down the stairs and opened the doors to find himself face to face with a blazing midday sun. The children were not too far away, screaming and carrying on amongst themselves. He wasn't entirely sure how to get Melody's attention. She seemed perfectly content to play with her friends. It wasn't until he neared the playground that several of the children waved to him in a friendly greeting. He waved back, watching Melody's face turn to a frown.

She ginger girl hopped off of her swing and marched right up to him, something that he was definitely not expecting. Her bright hair clashed terribly with the red dress and leggings she was wearing and he almost snickered. What fuel to tease River with. "What are you doing here?"

The Doctor blinked, thoroughly confused. He looked over his shoulder to see if she was speaking to someone else, then finally came to the conclusion that it was indeed him. "Excuse me? I think I should be asking you that question!"

"I'm obviously playing with my friends!" she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Obviously," the Doctor replied with slight sarcasm. "I mean, what are you doing here? You should be in Leadworth with your mum and dad."

"Where's Leadworth? My mum and dad live over there!" She pointed to a small house at the end of the street, yellow with a white picket fence and a car in the driveway.

"Your mum and dad can't live there, they aren't even born yet!" The Doctor said indignantly, noting to himself that Amy would never agree to live in such a house.

"What are you talking about?" she replied, looking at him as if he'd gone insane.

"Hush Melody, I'm trying to figure this out." This made no sense at all. Why would Amy and Rory be here in 1969? What reason would he have for bringing them here? None at all was his first conclusion. He remembered seeing the couple waving to themselves in 2020 and they certainly hadn't looked seventy-something years old, even from that distance. They didn't stoop when they stood and they had no problems raising their arms or waving excitedly. It made no sense!

"Melody is not my name," she said sulkily, crossing her arms.

"River then!" he exclaimed, crossing his own arms in response. "I'm trying to think."

"That's not my name either!" She stomped a foot on the ground in sudden anger.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and threw his long arms into the air in exasperation. She was already so much trouble! "Then what is your name?"

"Donna," she snipped, attitude rolling off her tongue. "Donna Noble."


	12. Chapter 11

In that moment, all logical thought fell away from the Doctor, leaving him completely and utterly dumbfounded. He stared at the child before him, uncomprehending. "You're... But... You can't be."

"I can't be what?" Donna asked, eyeing him strangely. "You really are weird, you know."

"But... You're Melody Pond!" he said softly, staring at her face intently. Donna's sparkling eyes sat on the little girl's face, somewhere they shouldn't be. His brain suddenly kicked back into its normal routine, remembering the first thing she had said to him. "Wait a second, you asked me what I was doing here. How do you know who I am?"

"You took me to the orphanage," she explained, swinging her arms from side to side. "That was a long time ago, though. I'm eight now. And I have a new mum and dad."

The Doctor took a step back and looked the girl over. She had the attitude to be Donna, that was certain. The hair and eyes were the proper color, but the age... Well, Time Lords never looked their age, did they? He stared. "So... You're Donna."

"Yes, that's what I said!"

He swallowed nervously. "I have to go." He turned and ran as fast as his gangly legs could carry him back to the TARDIS, Donna yelling angrily after him the entire way.

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As soon as the TARDIS door shut behind him, the shocked Time Lord set the time machine off into the vortex at record speed, then leaned heavily against the console. Melody was Donna? How was that possible? It meant so many things, it meant...

Amy... Rory...

No, now wasn't the time to get distracted. Before anything else, he had to go back to when the little girl regenerated and take her to the orphanage. That would give him more answers than anything else. He set the TARDIS to scan for regeneration energy this time and picked her up in Florida almost immediately.

Touching down in a rather dirty alley, he slowly crept out of his blue box, looking around. The stars in the sky above were masked by the bright lights of a city, one he didn't recognise. He was surrounded by brick buildings and trash bins of every size, almost tripping over one of them. He normally had little trouble seeing in semi-darkness, but it took him several moments to realise that there was a figure lying on the ground several meters away from him.

He quickly ran over to the form, finding the exact little girl he had been hoping to find. She had passed out after the regeneration, likely from the stress on her half human body. He was pleased in the sense that she figured out how to regenerate all on her own. That prospect terrified some Time Lords and she was only half; he was glad that her instincts kicked in and she was able to stay alive. He briefly wondered if she had ever regenerated before this.

He checked her vital signs and decided that they were acceptable. He gently lifted her from the cold ground, noting that her clothes were slightly damp. The girl stirred slightly in his arms and opened her eyes for a moment. He hushed her and told her to go back to sleep and she happily complied. She seemed exhausted, which gave the Doctor time to do what he had been hoping to do for a long time: check her memories.

The Doctor awkwardly made his way back into the TARDIS, setting it into the vortex for safety with his foot. He gently set the girl down on the glass floor, taking off his coat and lending it to her as a bunched up pillow. "Okay... Here we go."

He set a hand on either side of her face and felt his mind delve into her memories. Her mind was fairly clear, even while asleep. She possessed genuine memories of the Silence, something that truly surprised him. He decided that the suit really had allowed her to remember seeing them. How else would she carry out whatever they had kidnapped her to do?

Through the girl's eyes he could see the day that Amy dreaded, the day that she killed him. He swallowed. Seeing it through the eyes of another made it surreal, but it would happen some day. He pressed on, seeing the several years that the Silence had kept her prisoner, noting that the spacesuit itself had helped keep her alive, but his theory about the Silence's method of stabilising her was correct. They had taken her many places in their Proto-TARDIS, but always brought her back here. He saw her escape, something that they had definitely not counted on. He saw that she had been on the run for six months and that she remembered nothing before the Silence took her.

He pulled away from her mind and slumped against the railing. She didn't remember her parents or anything about who she was. She had no real name during the period either. The Silence always called her "child" or referred to her as "the girl". And now... He had to take her to London, to become Donna Noble. If he didn't...

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. All of his adventures with Donna would never have happened. She would have never met him or travelled with him, lost her memories, everything. But she was the one who saved 27 planets. She helped him free the Ood. And Pompeii...

He stared down at the girl's peaceful face. If he didn't take her to London, the Silence would capture her again. She wouldn't be safe anywhere in America, regardless of where he happened to take her. She looked different now, but no seven year old could take care of themselves on the streets, half Time Lord or not.

He silently gathered his precious Donna in his arms and set the TARDIS for whichever orphanage she decided was best. The time rotor rose and fell and he watched little Donna's face change ever so slightly at the sound. The thought crossed his mind that he had basically imprinted himself on the girl for the rest of her life. He smiled sadly and kissed her on the brow. "I'm so sorry, Donna."

He rested his forehead against hers for just a moment, but it was long enough to wipe her mind of everything but the most basic information, language and factual things that would not impact the person she would become. He felt quite a bit of regret about having to do such a thing, but the memories of the Silence would haunt her in her new life if he didn't. He could have no links back, no reasons for them to come after her. Now that they were being killed by humans all over the world, they had more to worry about than a little girl and Donna could escape.

The TARDIS touched down on a rainy night in the western London suburbs. The Doctor snatched his coat from the floor of the time machine and used it to shield Donna's face while she slept. He poked his head out the door briefly and spotted the orphanage that the TARDIS had chosen. It looked like a nice place; the TARDIS must like Donna a lot more than he originally thought.

He quickly bounded across the rain soaked street and up the short set of stairs. It was raining far too hard for his liking; his shirt and hair were already soaked through. He awkwardly knocked on the door as best he could and waited for someone to appear.

Exactly fifty three seconds later, a motherly looking woman with graying hair in rollers and a pink nightgown answered the door. "Goodness, sir, it's past midnight! What are you doing here?"

"Ah, mum, if I may come in?" he gestured indoors and she quickly moved away to let him in. As soon as the door shut behind him, he shook his head from side to side like a dog, spraying the woman unintentionally.

She recovered somewhat and eyed the girl in his arms nervously. He pulled his coat off of her. "I found her," he said by way of explanation. "I was driving home in the rain and I saw her on the side of the road. I asked her where she lived and she said nowhere because her mum and dad were gone. I didn't know where else to bring her and then she fell asleep in the back seat of my... car."

The matron motioned for the Doctor to bring the girl into the sitting room, where he carefully set her on the couch. She eyed him suspiciously. Children of this age were rarely brought here, except by parents who no longer wanted them. "Are you sure you don't know who she is?"

"Oh yes, mum." He reached into his wet jacket pocket and procured the psychic paper for her. "No funny business here, I'm a doctor." He almost grinned. How often did he get to use that explanation? "I'm not entirely certain about her, I wasn't on duty you understand, but I have a theory at least. At the hospital, we had a terrible car accident today. Both parents died and the child survived, but she ran away before we could contact any family. We haven't been able to find her since. I don't know if she is that child, but I didn't think it was proper to just take her with me. I don't have the facilities to search for her parents, nor the room to keep her in my home."

"Of course, Doctor...?"

"Smith!" he said quickly, clasping his hands behind his back. "Doctor John Smith."

The matron sighed, looking down at Donna asleep on the couch. The girl looked so peaceful. "Did she say what her name was?"

"She said it was Donna, but she never said a surname, which adds to the confusion." The Doctor paused. "I'm... Well I must admit, I'm rather worried about her welfare, in the rain as she was. She may catch a fever."

"I'll look after her," the matron responded. "She isn't the first child to be dropped on my doorstep and she likely won't be the last."

"But you'll search for her parents?" the Doctor inquired casually. Any search would come up moot and Donna's "amnesia" would do the rest.

"Of course, sir. I shall contact the authorities in the morning." She suddenly noted that the Doctor was sopping wet from head to toe. "Oh, my manners! Let me put the kettle on, you look like you could use a hot cuppa before heading back out in that wretched storm."

"Thank you ma'am, that would be most appreciated," he said amicably.

The matron returned three minutes later to Donna's soft breathing and a sitting room devoid of all doctors.


	13. Chapter 12

The TARDIS kindly opened the door for him as the Doctor rushed toward her and out of the rain. His entire outfit was completely soaked from head to toe. Now that he had Donna where she was meant to be, everything was in place. He promptly decided that he needed to change his clothes.

After several moments of searching through the TARDIS's wardrobe for the perfect bowtie, the green one with the stripes, he set off for the console room. He still had to return to the Ponds and explain to them exactly why they could never have their daughter back. He knew they would hate him, but there was nothing that could be done.

The Doctor's ears perked up as he heard the TARDIS's phone ring through her winding halls. He quickened his stride, glad for dry, non-squishy shoes. Very few people had his number and he had a sneaking suspicion that it was the person he had given it to most recently. He quickly snatched up the receiver the moment it was within arm's reach. "Hello?"

"Doctor!" Wilfred's voice crackled, despite the TARDIS's best efforts to make it otherwise. "She killed Shawn and she kidnapped Donna! Oh Doctor, please come back!"

The Doctor's blood ran cold. "Who, Wilfred? Who was it?"

"A woman, she had a laser gun thingy and an eyepatch!"

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "What day is it?" Wilfred informed him that it was the morning of January 4th, just a day after he had returned adult Donna to her family. "I'm on my way." He slammed down the receiver and ran as quickly as he could manage around the TARDIS's console, setting her off into the vortex at maximum speed.

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The Doctor landed the TARDIS as quickly as possible and bolted for the doors. He wasn't sure how Madame Kovarian managed to get back to 2011 again, but he meant to find out.

As soon as he stepped outside, he noticed that the TARDIS had materialised between Sylvia's house and the house next door. The sky was unusually dark and he looked up to see quite an interesting sight: a solar eclipse. He took a brief moment to marvel at it; though he could see one whenever he wanted, as he had a time machine, catching one by chance was extraordinary. Oddly extraordinary, even...

After the moment had passed, he ran out to the front yard to find Sylvia on the ground, crying over the dead body of Donna's husband. The Doctor carefully approached her, looking sadly down at the corpse of the brave man. "Sylvia?"

Her head snapped up. "Doctor... Doctor, she took Donna! She killed Shawn and now my dad is out there somewhere trying to find her..." She held a hand over her mouth and sobbed quietly. The Doctor quickly knelt next to her and pulled her into a comforting embrace.

"I'm so sorry," he said softly. "So very sorry. I really am." He held her for a few more moments. "I'm going to find your daughter and your father. I promise." She buried her head in his shoulder, something that could have only been brought on by unimaginable grief.

He held her as she cried, finally ready to bring up the topic that he had wanted to ask her about for a while now. "Why didn't Donna tell me that she was adopted?"

Sylvia's eyes took on a sharp light and she raised her head to look at him. "How do you know about that?"

"Because..." He wondered if he should tell her, but he supposed it didn't matter now. "I was the one who found her and took her to that orphanage."

"What?" Sylvia's eyes widened. "But they told us that her parents had-"

"I know," he said soothingly.

Sylvia closed her eyes, reminiscing. "We tried so hard to have a baby, but it just wouldn't work. Multiple miscarriages and... Well, we decided to adopt and that orphanage was the first place we went."

"She's special," the Doctor declared. "So much more special than even you know."

Sylvia raised an eyebrow in a silent question, but said nothing. She turned back to Shawn and gently lay a hand on his chest where a rose of blood bloomed. Her eyes began to tear up once more. "He was a good man. Such a good man."

"A good man..." The Doctor trailed off. That sounded vaguely familiar. Where had he heard that before? River... A spark ignited a thought in his head and he suddenly asked, "You said Wilfred was out trying to find Donna, why did he do that?"

Sylvia wiped her eye with a finger as the faint echo of sirens reached their ears, growing closer every second. "He's had nightmares the last two nights, from those soldiers. World War II and all that. He said he would do his duty after all. He wants to protect her."

"He took his pistol, didn't he?" the Doctor asked quickly, glancing up at the progressing eclipse.

"I tried to take it away from him, but he wouldn't listen. Blasted fool is going to get himself killed..."

The Doctor nodded slowly, letting the knowledge hit him and seep into his mind.

Demons run when a good man goes to war,  
Night will fall and drown the sun,  
When a good man goes to war...

xxxxxxxxxx

"So what does the rest of it mean?" The Doctor spoke aloud to himself as he set the TARDIS's scanner for Donna's unique energy signal. She popped up immediately and the TARDIS whirred and groaned, flying as fast as she dared through the time vortex.

The blue machine landed in an abandoned warehouse in- "Cardiff?" The Doctor checked the screen, but it was correct. They were in Cardiff. "How did they get to Cardiff?" A better question was how did Kovarian get back to 2011 in the first place? Her vortex manipulator didn't work and her time windows had been thoroughly dispatched.

The Doctor rushed down the steps, then paused. The prophecy that River had recited to him was now thrumming behind his eyes, brought forth by Sylvia's innocent words.

Demons run when a good man goes to war,  
Night will fall and drown the sun,  
When a good man goes to war

Friendship dies and true love lies  
Night will fall and the dark will rise  
When a good man goes to war

Demons run, but count the cost  
The battle is won, but the child is lost

Because River had refused to help him save Donna, she knew something about what was happening here. She knew what was going on and she wouldn't tell him a thing. He ran a hand down his face, trying to decipher her riddle. Wilfred was most certainly the good man here. The demons were most likely the Nazis. The second line referenced the solar eclipse, surely.

"Sylvia said he would finally do his duty..." The fourth line made no sense to him. Friendship dying? The part about true love made sense; he had never seen a grandfather-granddaughter pair that adored each other so much, except perhaps his own relationship with Susan. But what did the fifth line mean? "Night will fall and the dark will rise"? A restatement of the eclipse plus... what? Kovarian?

The final two lines worried him the most. He already knew that Amy and Rory's child could never be returned to them, but something else nagged him from the back of his mind. It seemed that there should be more to it than that, especially since it seemed to jump from Donna's present to her distant past. It was disconnected otherwise; the child had already been lost.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and stepped out of the box, looking around. The warehouse was extremely abandoned with no bulbs in the light sockets and no equipment of any kind to be found. Only large, rusting metal containers remained, many with no lids or doors. The ceiling far above him was dotted with peeling paint. The air smelled of must and rat droppings. He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Suddenly, the Time Lord heard the scuffle of running feet and a voice panting with fatigue. He pushed his way through the tiny opening between two containers. "You let him go right now!"

Donna!


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. More than I can say. I am so, so sorry.

Emerging from between the crates, the Doctor saw a horrifying scene unfolding in front of him.

On one side of the open expanse in the warehouse stood Donna, holding her grandfather's pistol and looking quite cross doing it. Her hair was sticking her to face and neck, sweat from some physical exertion that the Doctor hadn't seen. His best guess was that she had managed to wrestle herself away from Kovarian, who then turned on her grandfather and took him hostage.

Kovarian and Wilfred were on the other side of the expansive warehouse, to the Doctor's left. Madame Kovarian had Wilfred in a very scary and precarious position. Her blaster was pressed to his throat and he was watching Donna nervously. The Doctor saw a wave of relief flood his features when the Time Lord stepped into view. "Doctor! She-"

"Quiet!" Kovarian hissed. Her normally crisp composure was frayed at the edges, showing a dangerous woman ready to kill at a moment's notice. She pressed the gun further into Wilfred's jugular.

"Madame Kovarian, so nice to see you again," the Doctor said amicably. "Fixed your vortex manipulator, did you? It doesn't go very far though, I see."

She clenched her teeth in annoyance. "You left enough pieces behind that it could be repaired, for short trips at least. Several time hops later, here I am."

"Time what?" Donna demanded, taking a step toward the woman who had her grandfather at blaster-point. "Listen up, Nazi Pirate! You let my gramps go right now or I am going to shove this gun right up your-"

"Oh you would say that," the Doctor interjected, walking carefully over to the ginger woman. She eyed him suspiciously. "Not that the gun can shoot bullets or anything."

"And who do you think you are?" she asked angrily. "This... This bitch killed my husband!" The Doctor could tell that her anger was the only thing keeping her from breaking down in hysterical tears.

His voice softened. "I know Donna. It's all my fault and I am so, so sorry."

"What do you mean your fault?" Her focus was momentarily on the crazy man with the bow tie. "How can it be your fault?"

"Long story, explain later." The Doctor fished the sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket and aimed for Kovarian's blaster. Unfortunately, nothing happened. The Doctor balked. "You put a dead lock on the gun?" he asked incredulously.

Kovarian allowed herself a smirk. "Anything to frustrate and irritate you, Doctor." She said his name with as much deadly venom as a black mamba.

"Why did you want Donna?" he asked quickly, sending the ginger woman a signal to shut her mouth and keep it that way for more than two seconds.

Kovarian's smug expression broadened. "We mapped the child's timeline to the day you erased her mind. We saw what she would become, the knowledge that she would possess. We let you take her back then in order to take her now."

"But what for?"

"The knowledge of the last Time Lord is the most precious commodity in the universe, Doctor. Even you should know that. I could drive planets and species into the ground at a simple word, destroy and re-shape the universe to my own design. Destroy you."

"Oh, it's always about taking over the universe, isn't it? Does no one ever stop to think that maybe the universe doesn't like you?" The Doctor quickly ran a hand through his hair, then glanced at the woman standing only a few feet away from him. "Donna, I've got a plan, but you have to trust me."

"Why should I trust you, you said this was your fault! And what's this about erasing my brain?" she yelled, gripping the gun in her hand with white knuckles. Wilfred stayed silent, but watched the two carefully, hoping that the Doctor had a damn good plan. He mouthed 'trust him' to Donna, but she didn't see it.

"Donna, think back to when you were seven years old. There was a man, he took you to the orphanage, but then he came back. You saw him on a playground, you were wearing a red dress-"

Donna glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "What are you talking about?"

"Remember, Donna. You have to remember. That's the only way I can get you to trust me." He eyed her in return. "You know me."

"I don't," she replied immediately. Her gaze was locked on her grandfather, but he saw the recognition in her bright eyes.

He let the faintest smile grace his lips. "Yes you do, and you remember. You have to trust me."

She shifted her gaze and stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. "Okay. I trust you."

"Good-"

The crack of Kovarian's blaster shattered the almost silence of the warehouse.

The Doctor caught Donna as she fell, suddenly in a state of shock from the blaster shot that was now burning in her ribcage. Wilfred yelled in desperation as his pistol clattered to the floor at his granddaughter's feet. She gasped for air, holding a hand to the gushing wound. The Doctor panicked and pressed her hand harder to the area, trying to stem the flow of blood. He barely heard Wilfred's voice and Madame Kovarian's self important monologue in the background. All he could think about was his best friend and the fact that she was dying.

"Donna! Donna, listen to me." He lowered her to the floor, where she lay writhing in pain. She was having trouble breathing, which indicated to him that the shot had pierced her lung. He could have cursed in a million languages. Half Time Lord or not, she couldn't survive that.

"She is a weapon, Doctor! Nothing more! And I will have her!" Kovarian announced triumphantly. She was confident that causing the ginger woman to regenerate would restore her memory to before she became Donna Noble. She would once again be Melody Pond, living the life before she was tainted with all of the precious, altruistic ideals that Earth humans possessed and coveted. Her Time Lord mind would stay carefully tucked away, ready for excavation at a moment's notice.

The Doctor gritted his teeth, knowing that Kovarian was not leaving without her prize, then turned his attention from the evil woman and Wilfred to Donna once more. "Donna, please listen to me."

"It... It hurts..." she gasped, breathing shallow. He felt his hearts break, but pressed on.

"Donna, you have to regenerate. You have to do it yourself, it's not automatic, please." He grabbed her free hand to focus her.

She managed to gaze at him through the sweat on her brow. "Re-what?" She groaned, skin becoming more white by the second.

"You know how to do this, you've done it before. Please, Donna." A thought suddenly hit him and he grasped her hand tighter. "I'm the Doctor. For once, you have to remember. Remember all the times we ran. We ran and we met Agatha Christie! We fought Sontarans and the Daleks. You saved the universe. Twenty seven planets and billions of people. You have to remember."

She gazed at him for several seconds before blinking. "Doc... tor?" She lifted her bloodstained hand to touch his face. Before the contact was made, the Time Lord saw the beginnings of her regeneration in that hand, golden artron energy swirling down her arm in the most beautiful designs. He felt a surge of hope and let go of her other hand, standing up and away from her. He knew what Kovarian was planning, but he also knew one other thing.

Nothing would be the same ever again.

Donna's body convulsed one last time as the regeneration completely took over. The Doctor did not shield his eyes from it, but revelled in the answers he was about to receive. Wilfred was shouting from his place near Madame Kovarian, but the Doctor didn't hear him.

As the golden light faded, he gazed down with a goofy grin at none other than River Song.

She slowly opened her eyes, seeing the Doctor first and foremost. She said nothing, but carefully sat up, eyes glued to Kovarian and Wilfred. The Doctor began to help her up, but she pushed him away. He frowned, but let her stand on her own. She slowly struggled to her feet, dizzy from the regeneration. The Doctor didn't notice her lift the pistol from the ground and clasp it tightly to her side.

Madame Kovarian looked utterly horrified, for lack of a better phrase. They hadn't had any time to measure the baby's timeline this far; through Donna's memory wipe had taken the month that they had in Nazi Germany. There were legends about this woman and her exploits. The dreaded River Song, adventurer and companion of the Doctor. And now River was here, all because of her.

The Doctor was absolutely giddy, despite the situation. He looked rather smug, standing next to River and feeling rather self-important. This was the youngest River that would ever be and she looked somewhere around her early twenties, in human years. "Hello," he said with a grin.

The curly haired woman glanced sideways at him, then in a single swift movement, raised the pistol and fired.

The metal bullet hit Madame Kovarian's hand, causing the bones to splinter and her blaster to fall to the floor. She cursed loudly and Wilfred yelled an exclamation of triumph. He began to run away from her, but Kovarian quickly wrapped her injured arm around his shoulders and raised an object in her opposite hand to his neck. "If you shoot again, I'll inject him with this."

The Doctor squinted, as it was hard to see in the half-darkness of the warehouse. "What is it?" he demanded. Any injury she could inflict on him would invariably be cured by the TARDIS if it didn't happen too quickly.

"Karutlil venom," she hissed, pressing the object to Wilfred's jugular.

The Doctor stared, horrified. Karutlil's were extremely rare, poisonous plants found on Pharos 5. They had a large maw rather like a venus fly trap that secreted the most virulent, unique venom in the universe. It was the only poison known that did not have an anti-venom. Its rarity contributed to the lack of a cure, not to mention that it would permanently paralyse a human from head to toe in exactly ten seconds. "You can't-"

"She comes with me, or he suffers," Kovarian spat.

"Don't you dare!" Wilfred yelled, squirming in the woman's grasp, desperate to get free. "Don't you go with her!" 

The woman that was now River frowned. She raised the pistol again, taking careful aim, but there was no way to shoot Kovarian without hitting Wilfred as well. That would be a bit counter-productive.

The Doctor scratched at his head briefly. This was becoming more of a stalemate every second. Madame Kovarian would not leave without River and she would kill Wilfred if the woman refused. The Doctor couldn't do anything without Wilfred being poisoned.

Madame Kovarian eyed the blaster near her feet, looking as though she wanted to pick it up again. She carefully began to bend over to snatch it up, but Wilfred caught her in time and kicked the device away.

That was the woman's breaking point. Frustration at having her plans thwarted, broken vortex manipulators, and the appearance of River Song sent her over the edge. Knowing that she could not truly win this battle now, she let out a cry of rage and stabbed the syringe full of poison into Wilfred's neck.

Wilfred let out a cry of pain and Madame Kovarian stumbled back from the man, which gave River the vantage point that she needed. She raised the pistol and fired twice, sending the metal bullets deep into the evil woman's heart. She fell dead with a dull thud next to the empty syringe.

Wilfred immediately began to breathe heavily, the poison racing through his system. Three seconds had already passed. The Doctor took off running in the man's direction, frantic to get him into the TARDIS. The paralysis would not kill him as long as they transported him to a proper facility in time. He saw Wilfred's face as the man struggled to breathe and stay upright.

Suddenly, the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. He felt realisation dawn on him, an epiphany so obvious he couldn't believe that he didn't see it before.

"Octavian said you killed a man."

"Yes, I did. A good man. A very good man. The best man I've ever known."

Halfway to Wilfred, the Doctor skidded to a halt, turning back to see River's eyes filled with tears and the pistol raised. His eyes went wide. He screamed.

"NO!"


	15. Chapter 14

The Doctor turned back in time to see Wilfred's limp body fall.

He rushed over to the man and scooped him into his arms, searching his face for any signs of life. "Wilfred! Wilfred, please!" He checked the man's pulse and felt nothing. He saw nothing. The human didn't move. Only the stain of blood on his shirt spread.

The Doctor's eyes filled with tears, clutching the man close to his hearts. He turned to glare at River in what was almost hatred. "Why did you kill him?" he demanded harshly.

She stood silently, gun hanging limply at her side. She finally spoke, as if testing her own voice. "Karutlil venom is painful." She began to walk toward him, but his glare intensified, warning her to not come any closer. She stopped and lowered her voice, speaking so softly that he could barely hear her from the distance between them. "He would have never wanted to live like that."

The Doctor turned his gaze back to the human in his arms, considering her words. After several moments, he came to the conclusion that she was correct. Wilfred would never have wanted to live life in a hospital bed. He loved his precious family and his star-gazing far too much for that. It would have been painful for all of them, especially Donna, though she was no longer the Donna that he knew.

The Doctor looked up once more at the woman. "Who are you?" It was a test of her memories, whether she could see herself in her mind with the name she was meant to have.

She thought for a moment, then said. "My name is..." She frowned, then turned her head slightly to the side, causing her waves of curls to move. "I... I am River Song." She shifted her gaze from the floor back to him, as if she wanted confirmation that she had answered his question correctly.

He did not confirm her statement, but watched as she suddenly became dizzy and swayed on her feet. "Sit down," he said.

She shook her head to clear it, but to no avail. In the end, she set the pistol down on the floor and sat beside it, massaging her temples in obvious pain. The Doctor finally stood from Wilfred's corpse and hefted the man into his arms, navigating the maze of metal crates before finding the TARDIS once again. The blue machine opened her doors for him, lights dimmed in reverence. She had liked the Old one. He had always been kind and giving. Much like her Thief.

The Doctor carried Wilfred's body to the medical bay, placing it gently on the only bed present. He reverently closed the man's eyes and placed his hands together on his stomach. The still-warm flesh caused more tears to spring to the Time Lord's eyes. "Oh Wilfred..." He carefully leaned over the bed to place a kiss on the human's forehead. "I'm so sorry."

He said his final goodbyes and turned away, now intent on dealing with the next order of business. He had a half Time Lady to talk to. She would likely be confused and possibly in pain for a period of time, but it would pass. He walked back through the console room and out the TARDIS doors, leaving her to care for Wilfred's body.

After squeezing through the same two containers as the first time, he came upon Melody-Donna-River, who had unceremoniously passed out on the warehouse floor. He wasn't surprised. She was having to cope with 900 years of information that was previously buried. It helped that her previous lives were mostly gone and that she was half Time Lord, but it would take a bit of time before everything was sorted out.

He carefully carried her back to the TARDIS as well, deciding to bring the pistol with him for Sylvia's sake more than anything else. The woman would be... well, devastated was not a strong enough word. He set River in the room that had temporarily become hers when she periodically visited the TARDIS. Her breathing was regular, so he felt comfortable leaving her there to rest. Before he left, however, he gently took a peek inside her mind, to discover if his theory about her memories was correct.

After several moments of silence, he lifted his hands from her face. He was right; years of the Silence forcing her to remember them plus his own meddling had weakened the girl's mind. Donna's memory had never been good, except with temp things, and now he knew why. Constant mind-erasing and memory-wiping had done her in. The copy of his mind had acted as an overwrite; it had replaced almost everything that she was, like re-installing a program on a computer. She still possessed ghosts of memories from the time she spent as Donna Noble, but those would likely fade with time. She possessed almost all of his memories, something that would have to be explained to her so that she didn't traipse around the universe and pretend to be him.

He left her to rest and slowly walked back to the control room. He leaned heavily against the metal. There was so much bad news to deliver. It was smothering him. He sighed, then set the TARDIS off into the vortex.

xxxxxxxxxx

The blue box appeared on Sylvia's lawn, much to the surprise of the few policemen who remained. They had been questioning her for longer than she wanted to remember. At the first whoosh of sound, she immediately crossed the lawn to the TARDIS. Shawn's body had been gathered up and transported to a morgue via ambulance. Sylvia wrung her hands anxiously, waiting for the Doctor to bound out of the machine and tell her that everything was okay.

That moment, however, never came.

Instead, the Doctor quietly opened the door and walked from the box, carrying the body of her father, pistol held in his cold hands. She screamed.

The police immediately swarmed the Time Lord, demanding facts and asking questions. He stayed silent, gently laying Wilfred on the ground. Sylvia fell to her knees next to him, crying hysterically. The Doctor frowned at all of the men and women who would not just let the woman mourn. He took a deep breath. "Quiet!"

They all fell silent almost immediately, though several of them were fiddling with handcuffs and the like, ready to arrest him for murder. He cleared his throat, daring to glance down at Wilfred. "This man was my dad, as much as that word could ever mean." He looked up to the group, who had stilled their movements. "UNIT is on their way. They will take care of his body." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a letter, handing it to the closest officer. "There will be a woman in the UNIT convoy, give this to her." The officer read the name on the letter and nodded.

"Sylvia," the Doctor said softly, kneeling next to her. She was in mourning for two good men now; a terrible, undeserved fate. "Sylvia, I have to tell you... Donna is alive."

Sylvia's gaze shifted to him. "Where is she? Where's my daughter?"

The Doctor ran a hand down his face. This might possibly be the hardest conversation he ever had with anyone. "She's... She's in the TARDIS. But she's not the same person anymore." He quickly explained Melody's origins, how he had taken her from Florida and how Sylvia had come to adopt her. He gave more details concerning her regeneration and how she had been the one to kill Wilfred, though it had been out of mercy and love rather than malice. Sylvia seemed to absorb little of it. "She doesn't remember anything about her old life anymore. But that doesn't mean that she won't want to. She needs time, but if at any point she wants to come back and meet you..."

Sylvia merely nodded her consent and the Doctor smiled sadly. Losing every family member she had in a single day was too much. She had to at least have the opportunity to see what her daughter had become.

The Doctor stood and nodded a goodbye to the police, who were still confused about whether to believe him or arrest him. He quickly stepped back into the TARDIS before they could make up their minds and ran up the steps, setting course for Leadworth.

xxxxxxxxxx

The UNIT convoy arrived mere minutes after the strange blue box had disappeared from the front yard. The black vehicles had pulled up and several people had piled out of them, including a very pregnant woman in civilian clothing and a UNIT badge. She slowly made her way up the sidewalk to the group of policemen, greeting them all and gathering preliminary facts.

During the conversation, one of the men stepped forward and handed her the letter that the man from the blue box had given him. "Here, ma'am. I believe this is for you."

Martha took the letter and looked it over carefully before opening it. She noted that the name on the front was 'Dr. Martha Jones' not 'Dr. Martha Smith'. She smiled and shook her head. Opening the letter, she came face to face with a sheet of paper and a rather short message.

Martha,

There is a body of a woman in an abandoned warehouse in Cardiff. She has an eyepatch on her right eye. Dispose of the body in whatever way you see fit.

The man here is named Wilfred Mott, Donna's grandfather. He is to be buried with the highest military honors.

The blond woman is Sylvia, his daughter and Donna's mother. Donna had quite a bit of lottery money in her possession, make sure Sylvia gets it. Thank you.

The Doctor

P.S. The sonograms were wrong – it's a girl. You have a week to re-paint the room. Tell Mickey that he is rubbish at baby names; Mariah is much better than Caroline.

Martha stared for a moment, then laughed despite the situation. She should have known something like that would happen to her. Several of her colleagues eyed her suspiciously. She waved them off and said something about her ankles hurting, then retreated to her car to make a phone call.

After a few rings, she heard the click and her husband's voice. "Have I got news for you..." With something like the Doctor's approval, their daughter would most certainly be named Mariah.

xxxxxxxxxx

The TARDIS touched down in Leadworth to the fading light of a summer day. It was mid-evening and bugs were, frankly, everywhere, but the Doctor chose to ignore them. He stepped from the time machine to find Amy and Rory standing precariously outside their front door. They were older now than before, judging by the gurgling baby in Rory's arms. The Doctor walked carefully down the short path to approach the couple and their son. "Hello Amy, Rory. And...?"

"We named him Vincent. Well, Amy named him Vincent..." Rory reached out to snatch his son's hand back from sticking his fingers in his ear.

The Doctor couldn't help but smile. "Vincent would have appreciated the gesture," he said to Amy, who nodded in response. The Time Lord swallowed nervously. "I found Melody."

Amy suddenly let go of the breath she was holding and wrapped the Doctor in a fierce hug. Rory's face was painted with relief until the Doctor spoke again. "But she's not here, with me."

Amy immediately pulled back, staring at him with accusing eyes. "Why not?"

He sighed softly. "Can we go inside? I'll explain everything."


	16. Chapter 15

After arranging themselves comfortably at the kitchen table, the Doctor nervously began to speak. Instead of talking about their daughter, however, he began a story about a previous companion of his, a woman named Donna Noble who had saved the universe at the cost of her memories. Amy and Rory listened silently, keeping their son entertained with toys. As he concluded the story of his best friend, he launched into the tale of Melody Pond. He told them about searching for her seven-year-old self and finding Donna instead. He told them why he couldn't bring her back after that and why he had to erase her mind to keep her safe. He told them of the amazing woman Donna Noble had become and the things she had sacrificed. He spoke of her love for her adoptive grandfather, who happened to be very much like her biological father in many ways. Finally, he told them about Madame Kovarian's plot, Donna's regeneration into River Song, and Wilfred's death.

At the conclusion of his very long tale, almost an hour had passed, even with his characteristic fast talking. He folding his hands nervously on the table. "Any questions?"

"River is with you now, right?" Amy asked. At this point, she was desperate to salvage any relationship with her daughter and she knew that Rory felt the same way.

"Yes, but she's asleep-"

"Ha, asleep."

They all turned to see River standing in the doorway to the kitchen, wearing an outfit that she had definitely not been wearing when the Doctor left her in the TARDIS. "Did you raid my closet for clothes?" he asked indignantly.

"The TARDIS did it for me!" River replied sweetly. "She has excellent style." The woman took a few steps into the kitchen. "I heard everything that you all said." She looked at the Doctor with a curious gaze. "Would it be possible to retrieve my memories?"

The Doctor looked at her curiously. "No! No, I don't think so." He scratched his head. "Certainly none of the memories you had when you... were Donna." The past tense sounded so strange in this context.

"The Silence took me when I was very young. They erased those memories, but could you bring them back?" She watched him carefully, noting his every movement and reaction.

He thought for a moment. "Well, I could try..."

"Please," she answered quickly. "Not having a past is..."

"Difficult," he finished for her, understanding what she meant. It wasn't so much that she wanted a past, but she wanted a past with her real family. Her mind was full of so much information now that she didn't know where to begin. Giving her something like a family was a good place to start.

The Doctor nodded and stood from the table. Amy and Rory watched carefully as he approached their daughter, placing a hand on each side of her face and closing his eyes.

What he saw when he looked into her mind was nothing less than himself, but behind all of that, there was something else. He gently wormed his way into those memories and found Donna. Donna Noble, in all of her splendor. Her core was still there, holding onto memories that were the most precious to her. He saw the moment that she became the DoctorDonna, from both his and her perspective, almost laughing aloud at what he realised.

"How come you can fly the TARDIS?"  
"Oh, I had lessons from the very best!"  
"Well, yeah..."  
"It's a shame you were busy that day."

He had been busy that day, trying to save the universe from Davros and the Daleks. Technically, the metacrisis had been the one to teach her, not him. He continued his trip through her mind, catching more glimpses of things he should have seen, but didn't. In The Library, Donna asked River - asked herself - why River didn't know her. He surmised it was a combination of River's old memories and the legends of Donna Noble. The legends of herself.

"Donna... This is her diary. My future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?"  
"Spoilers, right?"  
"Right."

She had gotten that word from him. And there was so much more, even things that he had not been present for. He saw Rose after Donna didn't turn left, telling her that she had always been different, even before she met the Doctor. People had always mistaken them for a married couple, the universe's funny way of foreshadowing events; he had sort-of maybe asked River to marry him on the eve of her parents' wedding. And of course, she knew his name.

"Her memories of Donna are beginning to fade," he said suddenly, after several moments of quiet. "I can save some of them, the ones that haven't disappeared already. Is that okay, River?" She nodded. He carefully preserved the important memories that would shape her future, making sure to erase the memory of her own death. "I might be able to retrieve the memories she had while the Silence had her, since I got rid of those myself..." River immediately shook her head no. She didn't know what these Silence things were, but she wanted no memories of them, especially since they had kidnapped her. Who knows what things she had done during that time. The Doctor frowned, then delved deeper into her thoughts. "Ah ha!"

"What?" Amy and Rory looked at him expectantly.

"They suppressed her memories from birth to kidnap by hypnotising her. I can bring those memories back, but no others." River nodded her consent and closed her eyes in preparation.

Slowly and carefully, the Doctor peeled away the layers of post-hypnotic suggestion to reveal Melody's early childhood. Her memories of her mother and father came flooding back and she gasped. Time Lords had the capacity for a very good memory and there was so much in those first two years. Two birthdays, a purple bedroom, daddy telling her a story every night before bed about a man called the Lone Centurion. Mommy always let her eat her favorite foods whenever she wanted and they sang songs together in the garden. She remembered the day that they told her she would be getting a little brother. She remembered the day that the monsters had taken her, then no more.

The Doctor removed his hands from her face to find that River was crying. She lifted a hand to her mouth, tears falling from her eyes. She turned to look at Amy and Rory, who were watching with intent gazes and held breaths. Amy carefully stood from her chair. "River?"

The blond woman only nodded and Amy rushed forward, gathering her daughter in a fierce hug. River returned it enthusiastically, then reached for her father, who had followed his wife's lead. He wrapped her in a loving embrace, then finally presented her with her little brother. She smiled and carefully took him. "Hello, little one. What did you name him?"

"Vincent," Rory responded. He secretly loved the name, though he wasn't entirely okay with the fact that Amy had named their son after a famous painter that had fancied her.

"Melody and Vincent..." The Doctor said, watching the family's reunion. "Vincent and Melody. They go together, sort of."

"Sort of?" Amy asked indignantly, then wrapped the Time Lord up in a hug of his own. The Doctor returned it then moved to the Centurion, who could properly hug someone now that he wasn't holding a baby. River seemed quite enamored with her little brother, who was currently fascinated with her hair.

"Mum, Dad?" River asked suddenly, causing both her parents and the Doctor to gaze at her questioningly. "Can I... Stay with you a while?"

Rory blinked. "No, we were going to kick you out and never- Ow!"

Amy elbowed him in the side. "Shut up idiot. Of course you can stay, River."

"Sarcasm!" Rory declared indignantly, holding a hand to his side. "It's called sarcasm!"

"And Doctor?" River said, untangling Vincent from her curls.

"Yes River?" he asked expectantly, while trying to sneak away from the domestics. He had two funerals to attend, despite the happy times here. Amy sent him an irritated glare as soon as she realised that's what he had been trying to do. Rory, at a gesture from his wife, obediently walked over, grabbed the Doctor by his tweed coat, and pulled him back into the group.

"Two months." She smirked as his expression turned to one of confusion.

"Two months until...?" he asked, confused.

"Until you come back for me, of course," she replied, bouncing Vincent on her hip, much to the baby's delight.

"Until I- Do I look like a taxi service, River Song?" he asked indignantly, waving a finger in her face. "You are not the boss of me!"

"Alright then, three months," she conceded. "If it's in your head it's in mine, Doctor. I have no intention of letting all of that knowledge and spacetime go to waste."

He puffed out his cheeks, then said, "Fine, three months. But don't expect me to come at a decent time!"

"I'm sure you'll manage," she replied cheekily, stepping forward to press a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you. You've taken care of me for most of my life. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."

The Doctor looked exceedingly pleased with her display of affection, a silly grin planting itself on his lips. "Yes, well... Your parents would have killed me."

"You would have done it anyway," Rory said, taking his son from River. "You felt guilty." The Doctor frowned. The human always had an accurate, insightful comment to share, whether said comment was polite or not.

"Right then!" The Time Lord said, eager to extract himself from the fluffy domestics. "Amy, Rory, Vincent-" He paused to ruffle Vincent's dark hair, which made the baby squeal in glee. "It is not! It's cool!" He huffed and turned away, marching off to the TARDIS as quickly as he could. "Bowties are cool!"


	17. Epilogue

Exactly three months and two days after the Doctor left River in Leadworth, the curly haired woman was packing up her things. Amy and Rory had spared no expense to get their daughter a proper wardrobe. Several suitcases were crowded around her and she was almost finished when Amy walked into the living room.

"Melody, what..." She drifted off, watching her daughter zip up the last bag.

River smiled at her mother. Though she did prefer the name River Song now, Amy insisted on calling her Melody. Rory did call her River, though Amy did not approve. "Just packing up, that's all. He's coming tonight."

"How do you know?" Amy asked. River reached into her pocket and pulled out his psychic paper. She showed it to Amy. On it was scribbled the date in the Doctor's handwriting. Amy raised an eyebrow. "How did you get his psychic paper?"

"I took it," she said. "That kiss on the cheek wasn't just for show." Amy laughed.

Rory walked into the room a few minutes later, just as Amy was discussing with River what they should eat for dinner. Vincent was crawling now and his father was following him carefully around the house so that he didn't break anything or injure himself. The boy took a brief look around the room, then made a beeline for River, who laughed and picked him up. He had become very attached to her over the last three months, likely because she could speak baby. She would miss him when she left.

After dinner, River made a point to spend some time with her brother. She was certain that she would be back for visits, but she didn't know when those visits would be. The Doctor was never good with time, as she well knew.

Amy and Rory were sitting on the couch together when they heard the noise. The familiar whirr and wheeze of the TARDIS's engine filled the house and they quickly walked through their home, trying to find its source. Finally, they found her parked in the backyard, sitting directly on top of-

"My roses!" Amy shrieked, as River brought Vincent to the door to see the TARDIS. "He landed on my roses!"

"Oh shut up," the Doctor replied, stepping from the box with a grin and outstretched arms. "Hello, Ponds!"

"Vincent Williams sounds better than Vincent Pond," River pointed out, ballroom dancing around the garden with her brother, who was giggling the entire time. She stopped next to the Doctor and the Time Lord grinned.

"I wore a special bowtie just for you, Vincent!" The Doctor said proudly. The baby gurgled and he frowned. "What's wrong with blue?"

"Can I show him the TARDIS?" River asked excitedly. "I've been telling him all about her."

"Oh... Why not, go ahead," the Doctor stood away from the time machine and let the siblings have at it. River smiled brightly as Vincent took in the sight for the first time, dragging him through as many halls and rooms as he could stand.

Outside, the Doctor stood with Amy and Rory. "She's been good, I hope?"

The couple laughed. "Yes, Doctor. She's been wonderful. Unlike you, Mr. Flower-killer."

The Doctor scratched his head. "I'll bring back futuristic mulch," he promised Amy.

"You have to bring her back to visit sometime, you know," Rory chastised, watching his children finally exit the TARDIS.

"I will," the Time Lord responded. "I don't think she would let me keep her away from you all."

"He likes the library the best. I was surprised," River said, bringing Vincent over to the group. "I think we have a little scholar on our hands."

"That's brilliant!" The Doctor declared. "Once you're old enough, you can come with your sister and I and-"

"No!" Amy and Rory said in unison.

The Doctor and River both frowned. "Why not?"

"You already took one, you aren't taking the other!" Amy said in a huff. She took Vincent back from River, who continued to frown.

"Well..." The Doctor said, looking between parents and child. "We'll see, how about that? Maybe he won't want to come with us, eh?"

Vincent immediately responded with a squeal. River and the Doctor both raised an eyebrow at him. "Well then..."

"What did he say?" Rory asked, looking at his son curiously.

"Oh look, it's getting late! We'd better be off, River!"

"Yes, absolutely definitely," she replied. "Let me get my bags." She started off for the house.

"Doctor, what did he say?" Amy pressed the Time Lord, but he didn't reply. Instead, he put his fingers in his ears and started yelling 'LA LA LA LA LA' at the top of his lungs, running into the house to help River move her things. "Doctor!"

The two quickly gathered River's suitcases and escaped out the front door, just as Amy and Rory stormed through the back. The two escape artists quickly loaded River's many bags, to the Doctor's dismay, into the TARDIS. Amy and Rory came into view once more, the former still carrying Vincent. They watched the Doctor run excitedly into his time machine and waved goodbye to their daughter.

"Goodbye, Melody! We love you!"

"You too, Mum. We'll be back! ...Eventually!"

River shut the TARDIS door and bounded up the steps, eyes sparking with anticipation at the adventures that were bound to come their way.

The Doctor smiled at her enthusiasm. "Where to first, Miss Song?"

"I don't know," she replied thoughtfully. "Surprise me."

He grinned and set the TARDIS off into the time vortex. "One surprise, coming up!"


End file.
